


Alice in Wonderluna

by ProphetessMinty



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Complete, Deathsinger, Developing Relationship, Don't ever feed one of these things, F/M, Ghost fluff, Gun Smithing, Humor, Jade Rabbits, Mild Gore, Mochi, My ship name for Eris and Toland is “Tolorn”, Nine Lives Ghost Shell, Romance, Scarlet Keep, Secrets, The Light vs The Darkness, Toland the ghostly guide, rice cakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProphetessMinty/pseuds/ProphetessMinty
Summary: Alice is a Titan Gunsmith with an unusual penchant for curious whimsy. In her attempts to finish her latest project, she encounters a peculiar rabbit that sweeps her up into a mysterious endeavor. One that could lead her whole Fireteam to certain death at the hands—or rather voice—of the Hive “Queen of Hearts”. Will she be late for a very important date? Or will Alice be right on time for Destiny?Warning: Don't feed the rabbits!
Relationships: Eris Morn/Toland, Female Guardian/Male Guardian (Destiny)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 1





	1. Be Careful What You Feed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Riptor25](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riptor25/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or any part of the franchise; all rights and ownership belong to Bungie. 
> 
> A/N: Happy Level-up, Riptor25! 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ~ProphetessMinty

**(Part 1)**

_Of Rabbit and Moon, we are ten_

_Give us a rice cake and then_

_We will go our way and leave a reward_

_From the depths of our hidden hoard_

_We guarantee that our property_

_Is higher than even Hive quality_

_Though we cannot guarantee to you_

_That your days of seeing Jade are through_

_Our mystery is wrapped in lunar lore_

_No one knows the final score_

_Until we are made once again_

_To return to our original ten_

_We cackle, we scheme,_

_As we inhabit your dreams_

_With a beautiful green-tinted haze_

_So, you receive our small prize_

_With a glint in your eyes_

_But you will never escape our gaze_

* * *

Alice spent the latter part of her day scouring the vast, lunar terrain of the Hellmouth in search of precious helium filaments. It was the last and final smithing material that she required for her latest project. She jumped high and climbed low; over abandoned settlement buildings and deep into Hive-infested chasms. Her quest brought her far and wide, anywhere and everywhere her muscled legs would carry her. At the last hour of her hunt, Alice jumped across a green-glowing crevasse, when the glare of something mysterious and purple caught her attention.

The stout Titan turned on her heals and dropped to the ground. She inched herself forward with the toes of her boots, gravel scrapping against her stomach as she crawled up to the fracture. Alice peered down a long way until she caught sight of a ledge with abandoned settlement gear. She probably looked funny to the passerby, like a snake slithering against the ground, but Alice did not mind. Life was at her whimsy and the last thing she cared about was her appearance.

As she rose to a crouch, Alice's blue-white boots kicked up moon dust. Her Titan’s mark, navy blue and white leather, fell from the top of her thighs and draped between her legs. She did not spare a second thought as she hunched over the chasm and pitched forward into a freefall. Alice strafed to the outcropping with gradual ease and eventually _clomped_ down with the flats of her boots.

Looking to her right, the Titan found what had caught her attention from so high above. As she strode forward with mild curiosity, Alice hunched over a metal chair. She quickly noted the purple canopy that remained bolted to the chasm’s rocky wall and the shelf’s dusty floor directly behind it. On the flat surface of the seat rested a small statue depicting a white rabbit in a black and turquoise astronaut suit. Its eyes glowed an ethereal, otherworldly purple.

“Curious and curiouser,” she said under her breath, grasping for the strange sculpture.

Above the Titan’s shoulder, a mechanized vigil coalesced in a cloud of blue light. The spritely being floated in place, twisting and turning its petal-like gears. Its outer-shell glowed light and dark blue, its markings resembling a star map. With a critical blue eye, it said, “I think it’s watching you.”

“There’s nothing to fear, Dinah. It’s just a…statue,” Alice rationalized. “It’s rather cute actually.”

Dinah made an electronic skittering noise, the sound like a cascading shiver. “I don’t know about this, Alice. It’s…quite frankly, it’s freaking me out.”

The Titan laughed as she turned the figure over in her hands, taking in the details. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” she said after a moment. Alice turned the rabbit right-side up, gripping onto the base with her clenched fingers. Once her scrutiny subsided, having gleaned nothing new, she placed the object back to its resting place.

“Well, back it goes,” she said. “Perhaps we should turn it, so it has something new to look at.” Alice laughed to herself like a child playing with their favorite toy. “There, much better.” She felt a smile pulling at her lips, her eyes following suit.

As Alice turned the rabbit to the right, the sound of a ghostly cackle came to her ears. Dinah flickered in front of her Chosen’s helmet, her shell shifting with uncertainty. “Did you hear that?” Dinah asked, before whizzing about like a defensive bee.

Alice stepped back, standing to full height as she looked all around. “Curious and curiouser.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Dinah whimpered.

“ _You lack something_ ,” a voice whispered, the last syllable continuing into a hiss.

“What did you say?” Alice inquired to her ghost.

“Nothing! I said nothing,” Dinah whined, her shell shaking side-to-side. The movement made Alice picture two spokes of a wheel, the inner and outer, moving against each other in counter- and clockwise motions. 

“Hmm,” the Titan answered with pursed lips. “Maybe I’m just hearing things,” she explained to herself with a shrug.

“Don’t say that,” the ghost cried and strafed quickly to her Chosen’s shoulder. The mechanized vigil alighted between the Guardian’s pauldron and neck, taking shelter in the comfort of their contact. Alice felt Dinah shivering and the movement was like a massage to her shoulder and neck muscles.

“Very well. Let’s go, shall we?” Alice turned to leave, her ghost chirping in relief, before she came to an abrupt halt. 

“ _You lack something_ ,” came the whispering hiss from before.

Alice turned around and found the rabbit figure on the chair facing her on its own accord. A set of amethyst eyes glittered toward her, its gaze appearing quite ravenous. The Titan stepped closer to the figure and Dinah’s quaking caused her whole arm to tremble. Ignoring her ghost’s silent terror, the Titan reached for the statue as if in an unsung trance. Alice picked it up and in the span of a blink it reappeared in the chair. 

“ _Rice cake. That is the price_ ,” the voice whispered to Alice in a double-echo.

“Alice? Alice? Hello? Moon to Alice!!!” Dinah yelled to her Guardian.

The Titan paid no heed as she regarded the mysterious thing in front of her. “Dinah, can you transmat one of those rice cakes we found earlier? I’ve got a hunch,” she said after a moment.

“You really shouldn’t be thinking about your stomach right now,” the ghost chastised incredulously.

“Nonsense! The food isn’t for me. Silly, Dinah,” Alice chuckled.

“Excuse me?” Dinah croaked indignantly.

“Trust me,” Alice replied calmly.

The Ghost sighed her dissent but did as requested. Into the palm of Alice’s blue-white gauntlet, she watched as the confectionery coalesced into her hand in a cloud of light. It was round and yellow, with a green-garnish center, and the texture appeared jellylike. Alice knelt into a crouch and placed the treat in front of the statue.

The moment she did a few peculiar things happened. The rabbit winked out of existence as if it had never been there before. The only sign of its previous tangibility was the amethyst glow of its eyes forever imprinted on Alice’s mind. An echoing chorus of cackles rang in her ears for a small moment before retreating into the netherworld. 

Dinah’s voice pitched in a digital scream as a red gem flung at her from out of nowhere, plinking off her shell. Alice watched as the crystal hopped and rolled to her feet, halting as it lodged under the tread of her boot. Alice plucked it from the lunar dust, remaining in a squat position, while her other hand stroked the chin of her helmet.

“Interesting. Let us go pay a visit to Eris, shall we?”

* * *

“Still on the hunt, Guardian?” Eris inquired upon hearing the crunch of lunar gravel. The former Huntress turned round about like a silent silhouette with an outstretched hand. Floating inches above her palm was a fiery, jade orb encasing a bone fragment. Eris’s figure basked in the emerald radiance, her chitinous armor almost dancing to its flickering rhythm.

Alice came to a halt on the crest of the hill, giving Eris the space she so desperately craved. The Titan remained about six feet away, the gap in the midst of them still social and unrestricted. “Eris,” she greeted kindly, “I come to make a query.”

"Greetings, Alice." The right corner of Eris’s full and pale lips pulled slightly upward into an almost grin. “Query away,” she nodded, “but do not get lost in the hall of truth and untruth. It is…a dangerous place.”

The Titan relayed her tale of the rabbit statuary, where she found it, and what had happened before she left. Eris shifted on her feet for a moment, her garments swaying with the motion, before turning away. The former Huntress grabbed an old tome from a nearby stack of equipment and started leafing through the pages. “I know not of what you speak, oh, Wonderous one. However, there is an echo in my mind. It calls to my remembrance of an old tale.”

“Hmm, yes…,” Eris trailed off as she turned more pages.

“What is it?” Alice asked, moving her head to see what she held.

“Are you familiar with Pre-Golden Age myths? Folklore?” Eris snapped the book shut with the close of her bony hand, dust mushrooming out from the pages. The Titan pondered a moment and shook her head.

“No, I don’t think I am,” Alice answered.

“Knowledge and understanding are two different things. One is read and the other…experienced,” Eris stated, her voice thoughtful. “Take it. It is yours now.” Eris held out the book between them, swaying in her stance as if a single touch would vaporize her into dust. Alice walked forward and grabbed the withering tome. Eris’s hand recoiled the moment she no longer held the book, her fingers dancing with apprehension.

“Such a brave light. Prepare yourself for what comes next,” Eris cautioned before turning away from Alice.

“Thank you, Eris." The Titan gave a slight bow of respect before turning away to leave.

"Alice!" Eris called from over her shoulder. 

The Lightbearer paused and turned toward the woman, regarding her with full attention. "Be careful what you feed. Though it may be innocent at first, well-meaning intentions can have unplanned consequences. Trust in this lament of sorrow which I speak. _Six_ went down that day and only _one_ came back. I am not as I once was. Only one reflection among many glimpsed from a shattered mirror." Eris sighed. "Go your way, Guardian. Be vigilant."

For the first time that day, Alice shuttered.

* * *

On a high terrace overlooking the Bazaar, Alice stood hunched over a set of tables she had lined up from end-to-end. The total length was about twelve feet and per several square feet, there were heaped piles of gunsmith materials and resources. It was like a smithy's paradise as everything glittered and gleamed with the currency of promise. In her hands was a new creation, a shotgun, she had toyed with for months on end. Though it was fully assembled, something about it just did not seem quite right.

Alice paused as the red gem she received on the moon came to mind for the dozenth time that day. She could picture it clearly, its raw form unrefined and in need of polishing. Since her journey from Luna, she could not shake the feeling that perhaps it would be useful to her, but she was unclear as to “ _why_ ”. With a growl of frustration, Alice grabbed tufts of short blonde hair between her slender, fingers.

After a moment, she let go and started unscrewing the exterior plating with a small, orange handled Philips-head. She had been at it for the last two hours, assembling and disassembling, and still finding the same result of failure. "You've lost your muchness, Alice," she sighed under her breath. The puffed-up ego she once had laid behind her like a deflated balloon, her reserves of helium wonderment were tapped.

“Maybe I should take a break,” she muttered to herself.

As Alice set aside her tool, she went to grab at a black tome when the _tip-tap_ of nearing footsteps caught her attention. Her critical, green eyes zeroed in on the epicenter of the noise and found a tall and broad-shouldered Exo coming her way. As Alice pushed off from the table, the Philips-head toppled to the ground as she forgot her surroundings.

The Exo-Hunter had the looks of a Spartan; brave, hardy, and luxurious. 

On his head was a small crest of beveled metal that ended in a horn on his forehead. His facial plating was smooth and accented with three stripes of gunmetal grey paint that went from brow- to anterior plating. Alice often thought that this Exo feature reminded her of a faux hawk many human males would wear. Or perhaps it was what reminded her of the plume on top of the Pre-Golden Age helmets of those self-same Spartans. 

The Exo's face was predominately white, accented with black parts like his jaw and mouth. His eyes were bright like starlight, appearing hawkish from the shadow of the sockets they rested in. On his person he wore black, white, and red crucible gear, the design sleek and mobile. Behind him, his Binary Phoenix cloak billowed with undulating rhythm as a slight breeze picked up. 

In the Hunter's hands he clasped heavy, plastic bags with an obscured red and blue logo. Alice scratched her head, her eyes flicking away for a moment. "Come bearing food, I see," she said, standing to full height as she shoved her thoughts aside. 

The Exo, upon seeing her vigilance, puffed up his chest and bowed his arms out in show of his superior muscles. Alice smirked behind her hand; his exaggerated show was like a peacock puffing its feathers. "Evening, Alice," he said with smooth finesse as his vocal processor flashed purple. "You look as lovely as a Dragonfly."

She shook her head with a roll of her jade green eyes. "Oh, stop," she chuckled. "Go compliment one of your girlfriends, Casanova!" 

The Hunter playfully stepped back, staggering in place as if he had been shot. His hand slapped his chest and he moaned in pain. "Ouch, Alice. As brutally honest as a Deathsinger like always," he cheeked.

"Oh, shut up, Valentine!" she huffed, no longer enjoying his witticism. "You know I don't tolerate useless flirt—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know," he sighed suddenly put out. "I just wish you'd believe me."

Alice looked down to a spot on the table, avoiding his hurt expression. Months ago, Valentine confessed his feelings for her, and she thought he had been joking. His usual antics—teasing and womanizing—taught her long ago to put up her guard no matter how charming he came off.

Only now had she begun to realize that Valentine had been serious. The biggest piece of evidence to this fact was his abrupt change in behavior. He had cut off non-business connections with other lady Guardians, limiting his social interactions strictly to the fireteam—predominately female…of course. Alice felt the heat of embarrassment dance on her cheeks, and she coughed, hoping to get her thoughts straight. To her misfortune, the effect was minimal.

Valentine righted himself and strode over to the table, totally missing her awkwardness. He paused for a critical moment, his head turning left-to-right, and with a broad sweep of his arm made room for his peace offerings. Alice knelt and grabbed the tool off the ground and went back to fiddling with the shotgun. Though she tried hard to resume her project, Alice's concentration kept bouncing between the rustling bag, the salty smell of soup, and that red gem.

"Why don't you take a break?" Valentine asked softly as he came to her side. Alice glanced to her right, noting the bowl of ramen in his hands. She sighed as her head hung forward, the bulk of her weight now in her splayed hands on the table. 

"I'm busy," she replied. "And besides…I can't seem to get this thing to work."

"Take a break," he insisted. “You can’t work on an empty stomach.”

"Very well," Alice conceded, knowing he would only nag her more. 

The Titan took up a seat next to the Hunter and swiped an arm against the piles of helium coils. With the space cleared, she set her bowl of hot ramen in front of her. Valentine fiddled with one of the bags for a moment and produced a clear container with something he knew Alice would enjoy.

"What's that?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

Valentine grinned, "Only _your_ favorite, for _my_ favorite."

Alice rolled her eyes and went to reply something snippy when a heavy pair of thumps rattled the table. The Hunter and Titan focused their gazes to the right, far end, where two Awoken Warlocks sat shoulder-to-shoulder. Both were females with identical faces, white eyes, and short purple hair. On their foreheads were similar facial markings that dipped down to the bridge of their nose; the color grey on one and sun-yellow on the other.

"Luna. Sola. Glad you lovelies could join us," Valentine greeted jovially. 

The Twins looked to each other and flashed toothy grins. "Tweddle told us you were here," they replied in unison. Above them hovered a small ghost, its shell curving outward with spikes like a flaming sun. "We were hungry," they chimed together like an echo. 

"Glad to hear it, there's plenty to go around," Valentine offered with a sweeping gesture of his hand. 

As the Twins hunkered down with a fresh pile of food, the Exo nudged the clear container in his hands against Alice's gauntlet. With an accepting nod, Alice took it while licking her lips. "Mochi. What flavor is it today?" Her green eyes looked back to the gooey confection, eyeing it suspiciously.

Valentine shrugged, "The menu said it was 'mystery' flavored."

Alice grinned, she welcomed surprises. Ever so quickly, she popped the lid open with her thumb and began sniffing the contents. The smell was sweet and heavy with powdery sugar causing her mouth to water. The Titan grabbed a white, powdery balled cake, bit into half of it, and watched as it stretched in goopy strings as she pulled the other half away from her mouth. In her peripheries, Alice found Valentine studying her, his eyes flickering between the food and her.

She sighed contentedly, “It’s lavender flavored.”

“Can I try one?” he asked, his vocal processor glowing purple as he spoke.

“Sure,” she smiled, offering him the box before eating the last bite of her mochi. “Thanks again, for this,” Alice said loud enough for only him to hear.

Valentine grinned and popped the confection into his mouth. “Only for you,” he said after a moment, his eyes slowly trailing to her mouth. “You’ve got a little something,” the Hunter whispered and reached out to her. His hand cupped her chin and ever so gently, he brushed his thumb over her peach-colored lips. The Titan felt her cheeks flush as butterflies filled her stomach with wild movement. A rush of nervousness hit her, and Alice looked away unsure of what to make of things as they stood.

“There,” he said jovially. 

The group of four chatted for a time and eventually their party turned into five as a human Warlock shuffled along to their table with her nose stuffed into a data pad. In her other hand she held a steaming cup that Alice could only assume was unadulterated tea, compliments of Devrim Kay himself.

"Milly," Alice beamed excitedly, "It's been a while."

The mousy brunette looked up from her screen, her porcelain features shadowed and highlighted with blue light. "Alice," she spoke, her voice English proper. "It has indeed. My research has proved quite vast as of late." Her hazel eyes, smokey with dark makeup, narrowed for a moment as if lost in thought. "Have you heard of an old Chinese legend about the rabbit on the moon?"

Alice had leaned forward for a bite of noodle she had between her chopsticks when the question slapped her in the face. The noodles fell with a splash and the Titan found herself dumbfounded. "How did you...?" she trailed off for a moment. "Did you find it?" Alice asked, picturing the rabbit statue, as she jumped to her feet.

Milly patted her long robes to her legs, keeping them in place as she sat down on a chair at the opposite end of the table. Resting her data pad on the table, she looked to the Titan. "Find what?” she asked, her nose crinkling with confusion. “ I've been looking through the archives again when I stumbled upon a tab talking about—Alice? What are you doing?" Alice began rummaging through the piles of gunsmithing materials, parting the resources carelessly, like a mad woman.

"Eris gave me an old book. I want you to take a look at it," Alice said excitedly. "It was talking about the rabbit on the moon." The Titan ended her search through a pile of helium coils when she found the frayed hardback in question. Yanking the black tome out from under the stack of coils, Alice threw it at the Warlock right as the resources started haphazardly rolling away. Alice scrambled to catch several cannisters as Valentine held out his arms and laid on the table to stop their departure. 

Milly squeaked in reaction, shielding herself with her arms crossed over her face. The book fell to the table directly in front of her with a loud _thump_. The brunette peeked out from her shelter and reviewed the cover of the textual projectile. "Ah, yes. This is the one," the Warlock beamed. "And you said Eris gave it to you? How did she find something like this. It's worth a fortune!"

Alice shrugged as she finished stacking the helium coils into a neat-ish pile. Valentine sat upright and went back to eating his food. "I don't know,” she said, “but the old, Chinese folklore was interesting. I guess the rabbit in the story was a companion to the ‘moon goddess’ Chang’e. He works away all day at a pestle to make an elixir for Chang’e. One that gives long life, apparently.” Sitting down, Alice grabbed for the box of mochi and extracted a green cake this time and eyed it suspiciously. “Anyways, Eris gave me the book after I asked about a rabbit statue, I found in the Hellmouth. Dinah practically flew out of her shell—"

"Wait, what?!" Milly yelped. 

The Titan stopped her fidgeting and looked to the Warlock whose face was riddled with fear. "What do you mean 'what'?" Alice asked with a confused expression. Valentine and the Twins stopped what they were doing and studied Milly with equal puzzlement as their heads lulled to the side. Milly's hazel eyes bounced from Warlock to Titan to Hunter to Warlock, as her hands came up to her chest with a flabbergasted shake. 

"Never. Ever. EVER," Milly enunciated, "feed one of those demonic creatures!"

Alice chuckled as she scratched the back of her head. "Well, it's a little late for that."

Milly blanched. "No. No. No. No. No!" The brunette grabbed at her neat, shoulder length hair, causing it to frizz in her panic. "This can't be happening," she squeaked. Before Alice could ask for an explanation, a creepy chorus of echoing laughter rang over them like an orchestra of doom. They all stopped what they were doing and searched the area, trying to locate the noise.

A clank on the table caused them all to jump with fright before each member turned to the source of the noise. On top of the helium coils, they found a rabbit astronaut statue precariously teeter-tottering. Its amethyst eyes glittered for a moment and suddenly the statuary blinked out of existence with another round of cackles. The helium coils that Alice had so neatly stacked, scattered off the table and clanged against the terrace floor. One by one, the canisters exploded into a grey cloud thick with noxious chemicals.

Milly fell first.

Then the Twins.

Valentine collapsed third while shoving Alice purposefully away from the table. The Titan tumbled forward while cradling the box of mochi and dropped to her knees. She was the last to go unconscious in the haze. 

The world went black.


	2. Go Big or Go Home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or any part of the franchise; all rights and ownership belong to Bungie. 
> 
> A/N: I think you will like this newest chapter Riptor25. 😊
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ~ProphetessMinty

**(Part 2)**

_A company of friends has been scattered_

_It was our wish and all that mattered_

_To separate the wondering from the wandering_

_And to try their metal as we continue pondering_

_Who will win in a battle of wills?_

_A Queen of Hearts who succeeds in planting foothills?_

_Or, a Guardian of Light who seeks after thrills?_

_Only time will tell as the hourglass’ sand spills_

_Hearken now and heed our words, oh precious Alice_

_Journey through the labyrinthine network of the scarlet palace_

_Only there will you find that the crimson flow_

_Runs thickest and freshest at the Tower of Woe_

_As we speak your companions require your presence_

_Go now, for time is of the utmost essence_

_Attempt to uproot the seed that has been sown_

_Used to shape and mold the Red Queen’s throne_

* * *

Alice woke with a start, the world around her swirling with impossible contortions as her eyes focused and unfocused. "Dinah?" she groaned. As the Lightbearer sat up, a wave of nausea washed over her, and her forehead thundered with ache. The feeling soon receded as the Titan’s lucidity came back to her renewed and strong with each passing moment. Suddenly her mind filled to the brim, like water in a cup, as successive questions hurtled to her forethought.

Where was she?

What happened?

Where was everyone?

As thought after thought assailed her, Alice felt unbalanced as she worked to sit upright, something beneath her creaking in protest. The sound was low and dull like the bending of a twig before it snaps. Under her unsteady perch, a pile of old bones shifted and groaned as Alice wobbled with apprehension.

"Dinah? Dinah?!" her voice echoed into the hazy crypt. 

The ghost did not answer. 

“Milly?” Alice tried next.

Nothing.

“Sola? Luna?” she called.

Again, nothing.

“V-Valentine?” Alice inquired with a sudden shake in her voice. Facetiously, she had hoped she was not alone, but the Titan already knew the answer before she spoke. Isolation began to creep in and fester, settling on her heart like dust to an unused shelf.

She checked the feeds in her heads-up display (HUD) but found no open communication channels. Not even a crackle or a buzz of an active link came her ears to put her ravenous worry to rest. A pit of something sickly worked her stomach and it flopped twice as a mewling reverberated off the walls. The Titan's head snapped this way and that to find the source but found the hazy light from above obscured her ability to see into the shadows. 

"Curious and curiouser," she muttered while looking up.

The room appeared to have limitless height; its ceiling obscured in the incandescent radiance. Swirls of mist undulated in a sort of billowy dance as dust particles glittered with paralleling motion. Her green eyes then fell downward, finding no foreseeable bottom; just age-old ivory bones cascading beyond the veil of light and into pitch, black darkness. Alice, realizing that "up" was not the answer, made the next logical choice and that was "down". Leaning all the way back, Alice slid swiftly and uncontrollably over the rattling mountain of osseous matter, skeletons clattering with _clickity-clacks_. 

The last ten feet tossed Alice around like a rag doll and she was unable to right her ungainly tumble. She plummeted swiftly until she finally met the unforgiving ground with a thwack and a crunch. The wind was knocked out of her and replaced with short and sharp gasps of shock. Alice did not bother to move, she remained motionless until the pain passed, and her breath restored. 

After a while, Alice came to her feet, testing her blind path with tentative taps from the toe of her boot. She was in complete darkness and at the total mercy of destined whimsy. Though fear nagged at her, whispering thoughts of an untimely fate, the Titan pressed onward. Every so often she would stumble and trip, her boots catching unfathomable surfaces. 

In her almost endless mosey, Alice found a pale glow in the distance ahead. Whether it was twenty feet or a mile away, she did not know. The light was as small as the eye of a needle. The beat of unmistakable hope drummed against her chest, the rush of blood singing a melody only she could hear. Alice raced along with agile speed, not daring to look back. 

Her muscles clenched and released in her powered jaunt as if kneading raw, violet Void into her very being. She could hear her breath, controlled and rhythmic. It was the only sound she cared to hear despite the chorus of unnatural chattering that murmured around her with hunger and thirst. A wellspring of emotional vibrancy began to stir within her, the frenzied excitement roaring to life as it pawed for escape.

The intensity dove swiftly like surprise in the gut before it melted away into an all-consuming pit. Somewhere between cold calculation and chaos, she felt nebulous power swirling through her like an internal maelstrom. As she focused on the light, imaging in her mind a certain tool, a weightless shield of luminous Void-energy coalesced on her forearm. Alice braced herself mentally as she hunkered down under the protection of her amethyst buffer, knowing there was high possibility of adversarial resistance. 

Gliding across the floor in a blurry streak, purple light pierced the darkness and divulged the secrets of the path's foreground. It was heavy laden with Hive-muck and old, gelatinous sacs recently discharged of sentient life. Petrified husks crumpled under her wake as Alice's desperation skyrocketed with every step. A new chorus of chittering bellowed forth, the sound near and far—all encompassing. 

Alice sprang up high into the air and fell shield-first, her right hand bracing the fist of her left. Slamming all her weight into the ground, raw Void pulsed out in spidery waves of violet impact. The floor dislodged in sprays of Hive-barnacles and fresh goop, as a swarm of Thrall dissipated among the old hatchery. 

"Move!" she yelled to herself.

The Titan flew forward, propelled by curiosity and adrenaline. The light in the beyond seemed closer now and it looked to be a small doorway, arched with yellow-orange glowing crystals. Nearing the end of her supply of Light, Alice flung herself into the next jump, cleaving through the darkness like a concussive ballista bolt. In her desperate hurtle, she could only pray that her life would not end in an abyss without telling Valentine goodbye. The thought of not seeing him again frightened her and she immediately regretted not being able to talk with him more.

As Alice hurtled through the small vestibule ringed with Hive crystals, reality began to shift as it stretched and shrunk; matter assembling and disassembling. The feeling was similar to the portals she had traveled through by Eris' design. It was both thrilling and nauseating all together. The moment she broke through the rift, Alice rolled forward into a kneeling pose, her armored knees dragging against cold stone. She slid a few feet with grinding screeches before leaning back and kicking out her bent leg like a slide-stop.

" _Tick-tock, Alice,"_ hissed a multilayered whisper.

Seconds later, her commlink crackled and a voice Alice had not expected to hear yelled at her. "What do you think you are doing, Guardian?"

"Eris?" she asked, clearly flummoxed. 

"Alice?" Eris responded, equally confused. "Why did you access the Scarlet Keep? No one has ventured there since _the_ Guardian defeated the daughter of Crota—Hashladûn." The Hive-scholar paused as the apprehension thickened between them. 

At the mention of the deceased Ascendant Wizard, a whisper like ten voices echoed off the high walls of the atrium. " _Do not speak of the failed architect_ ," it spoke. " _The Queen will not permit another transgression_." Alice stood to her feet, looking round about for the mysterious entities murmuring to her. The Lightbearer’s search for the voices yielded nothing as she began her descent down a small flight of stairs.

"I don't know how I did to be honest. One minute I was having dinner with my Fireteam at the Tower and now I'm here," she answered, a new wave of panic running through her. "Dinah is missing. My team is missing. And I am without wea—"

"Hush, Guardian. Do not finish the thought further. Knowledge is power," Eris warned darkly. “Especially here,” she added.

Alice sighed in defeat, but obeyed, nonetheless. As the Titan came to the bottom of the staircase, her boots clunked against the cold, cobbled stone of a long and narrow path. She began to walk its length, taking care to survey the Scarlet-Hive decorum. "I sense no Hive treachery upon you," the former Huntress stated, her voice thoughtful, "but this is quite—"

"Curious?" Alice guessed.

"Indeed," Eris responded.

" _The Queen awaits_ ," the voices whispered. " _You are late, Alice. Your friends will become stepping stones if you do not hurry._ " A chorus of cackles followed suit, before diving into silence like a Harper pressing a hand over a reverberating chord. 

"Eris," Alice began, "What do you know about a Hive Queen in the Scarlet Keep?"

"Why do you ask?" Eris inquired, her words lilting with esoteric interest.

"I'm hearing...voices," the Titan admitted. "It's like—"

"What do they _say_ , Alice?" the scarred woman interrupted. 

" _Ir Akäi. Ir Akäi. Ir Akäi_ ," the voices chanted in answer.

Alice listened and repeated the name, the syllables like hot blood racing down her throat and they had the taste of malice.

"She is a Hive Wizard, aspiring to ascendancy," Eris scoffed. "They call her the ' _Queen of Hearts_ '." 

"Why is that?" Alice questioned, hopping over a fallen pilaster riddled with Hive barnacles.

"Ir Akäi has gathered together a melody of necrosis from the darkest pit, not even Alak-Hul—the Darkblade—had the privilege of inhabiting," the Hive-Scholar answered. "With every breath she attunes herself to the sharpest note, each cadence adding more annihilation than the first. It breaks the decibels of human reception and utterly explodes the heart of those unfortunate to hear it." Then she added, “Blood is the price of her fixation. The Scarlet Keep is merely a ruby stone in which she endeavors to carve out a place in the diadem of her would-be throne world.

"In short, she's kind of like a Medusa-type?" Alice asked with a chuckle.

"Medusa had eyes that petrified," Eris stated, "and though I cannot deny the ghastly nature of a Wizard's pernicious appearance, it is not her eyes you should worry about." The feed of their communications crackled for a split second as Alice turned with the bend of the passageway. "The journey is laid before you, oh, Wondrous one. I cannot alter your path, but I can try my best to guide you."

"I wish you hadn't said that," the Titan groaned apprehensively. "However, you might be right," she agreed. “My team might be in danger, and I haven’t even found the exit yet.”

"Neither do _I_ wish it so." Eris' somber truth was not as comforting as Alice had hoped for, but it was enough to stir her into resolve. Silence stretched between them for a time as the Titan’s wandering brought her into a circular chamber dimly lit by spiked, hanging lanterns. In the center of the room was a crimson dais with a flat tabletop.

Floating just above the counter was a wisp of white light, its surface ribboning with energy like solar flares. The spectral orb spun in a continuous circular rotation, eclipsing a small figurine of a white rabbit in an astronaut suit as it did.

Excitement jumped within her and Alice ran to the crimson pedestal without a second thought. “It’s you!” she yelled with a mix of excitement and frustration. As she swiped a gloved hand across the surface of the dais, the wisp ended its revolving dance, and bobbed with a mad jitter. Before she could even touch the figurine, the ball of light raced up Alice’s arm and soared toward her visor until it came to an abrupt stop.

“Guardian! Do not touch this lunar hare,” a yawning voice warned, “it’s cup brims to the full with vengeful cunning. Though you walk with wonder in your steps and reach out with curiosity at your fingertips, you do not know what it is you behold.” Alice jumped backward with a startled squeak, her hand smacking the spectral light away with reflexive fear. Her gauntlet passed through the vigil—intangible and bleak—and each time it chilled the bones of her hand.

“You have wandered far. From one enemy’s dreamland to another,” it spoke unaffected. “By what means have you been brought to this Keep? Speak now Guardian, quell my bolstering interest.”

“What is happening, Guardian?” Eris inquired over the crackling communication feed. Her voice seemed hollow and tinny as the connection waned, but the concern riding the wave of her question was palpable.

“What are you?” Alice asked with startled fascination.

“Not ‘ _what’_ , but ‘ _whom_ ’, stupid Guardian,” it corrected with bored articulation.

“That sounds like—” Eris began but trailed off.

“I am known by many names but—“mad” and “exile”—are the world’s most _bequeathed_ titles. That _was_ until this soul was cleaved from the corpse of a bygone man and unsung into the Sea of Screams. I am—”

“Toland—the Shattered,” Eris and he finished in unison.

“Project our conversation, oh, Wonderous one,” the former Huntress spoke with authority. “I will act as intercessor. Though my words may be trivial, he may listen yet.” Alice did as requested, blinking a series of commands to her HUD until the conversation opened between them.

“And…who are you?” Toland asked, his voice dull and impassive.

“I’m Alice,” the Lightbearer answered.

“Hardly the Guardian I expected,” he sighed.

“Enough pleasantries, Fractured one,” Eris’ disembodied voice cut in. “There is much to discuss.”

Toland’s incorporeal form shifted back over to the pedestal in the blink of an eye, as wisps of light continued to dance over him in silent ribbons. “Ah, Eris—mourner of the dark below—to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“No ‘pleasure’,” the scarred woman corrected, “only ‘business’.”

* * *

The sound of Toland’s laughter came dry and humorless as it bounced off the walls with cynicism. Every cackling bark would ignite his wispy glow until a silhouette of the man appeared leaning against the dais. His legs were crisscrossed, and his arms folded over his chest. Toland’s hair was longish, reaching his shoulders in waves, and he had a scruffy beard that would ripple like curling clouds. Where his eyes should have been were three long claw marks over empty eye sockets. The ragged robes he wore, no doubt shredded from violence, were nebulous as he shook.

Had Toland been unmarred and _unshattered_ , he would have been quite handsome or so Alice pondered in passing.

“Feed one and they all come,” he chortled before transitioning into seriousness.

As Toland spoke, he stood and began walking around the crimson pedestal, his feet and legs turning to ghostly vapor. “These insufferable…anomalies…have plagued the moon for a time unknown. They borrow and fester, inhabiting strange abodes where they remain sequestered until—Guardians—come along and bestow them with provender.” He stopped pacing and put his tattered gloves flat on the tabletop, his fingers splayed. Clouds wafted out from under his hands, misting away forgotten.

“And to think Eris values you so,” Toland scoffed. “Yet you’ve been ensnared in the lunar hare’s quarry,” he said, waving a hazy hand over the top of the statue.

“Like _you_ have room to talk,” Alice quipped, folding her arms over her chest. “You unsung, ninny.”

“Enough!” Eris boomed over the mic, her voice in mechanical frenzy as the feed distorted. “Stay your bedeviling contentions,” she admonished. “Either help or depart. The hour waxes and there is neither time for idle chatter, nor persnickety disputation.”

Toland stood back, smoothing a hand over his beard in thoughtfulness as he kept silent. Alice shifted in place, not willing to let him out of her sight as he went back to his circular striding. The novelty of who and what he was had long worn off, and the Lightbearer found him increasingly vexing. From how he spoke, to the way he walked, everything about him oozed arrogance. A tick formed in her jaw and all she could do was keep quiet, lest she utter her thoughts into existence.

“Do not guides require annuity before committing to their service? What then is my due?” he pondered aloud.

“On with it,” Eris sighed as if she had a blossoming headache. “What do you require?”

“I have no need for physical possessions. For what does an incorporeal being do with such things?” Toland rationalized. “Secrets, however, are more valuable than the rarest treasure mined within this solar system. And, time. Time is fleeting for those bound to reality. I have much and you, so very little. Eris—my dear Eris, _that_ is my price.”

“What mystery shall we impart to you,” Eris asked, “oh, Shattered one?”

“The Queen’s lullaby,” Toland said breaking into a toothy grin.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alice interjected. “There’s no—”

“Very well,” Eris agreed quickly. “When the Songstress serenades her last, you will have her chorus of causality.”

“Thank you,” Toland bowed, the gesture as mocking as it was charming

“But, Eris!” Alice protested.

“There is no other way,” Eris warned, her voice tired. “Toland’s help would prove invaluable in your ventures as he plays the part of navigator. It is near impossible for me to do so as _he_ is there, and _I_ am not. ”

“Come along, oh, Wonderous one,” he laughed. “There is much to discuss.” Before Alice could reply, Toland’s form shrunk back to orb-size and flittered through a door she had not noticed before. With a growl, the Titan started to stalk forward when the whispers began.

“ _Wait_ ,” the voices from earlier pleaded, “ _you forgot the offering._ ”

Alice stopped just before the doorway and looked over her shoulder to the crimson dais. The rabbit that Toland had previously guarded, turned toward her of its own accord. Its eyes glimmered and gleamed purple, the color reminding her of Valentine’s vocal processor. She frowned as a sudden ache ran through her.

“Rabbit…or whatever you are…what do you want?” she asked.

“ _A rice cake_ ,” the rabbit answered.

“I’m fresh out of rice cakes,” Alice answered, waving an empty hand in the air. “If Di—If Dinah were here,” she frowned, “I could get you one.” 

“ _What is on your armor then?_ ” it asked, its eyes glittering with hunger.

The Titan looked down and found globs of white, pink, and green mochi plastered to her chest. Here and there splotches of powder had worked its way into her Dragonfly Regalia as if someone had decided to throw baking flour at her. Alice sighed and grabbed a glob of green rice cake off her chest. Quickly, she strode to the rabbit and offered it the confection. Upon receiving its gift, the rabbit cackled into nothingness, bringing its sweet along with it. Where the statue had been, in its place rested Alice’s shotgun.

“What is this doing here?” she thought as she picked it up.

Very tenderly she turned the weapon over in her hands, suddenly noticing every detail that had not been of her own design. The shotgun seemed to hum in her palms, the feeling like the reverb of a cackle. The long barrel had hive-crystals inlaid, lavender and jade, that seemed to pulse with light. Alice watched as the glow flickered in and out like a heartbeat…her heartbeat. The outer casing was blood-red and the grip like midnight. Nearest the trigger guard was a peculiar slot, both deep and jaggedly shaped, like the weapon was missing a piece.

“How curious,” Alice mumbled.

She was in complete awe of the designs she had never thought of before, her green eyes racing up and down like a kid surveying their options in a candy shop. As she motioned to turn the weapon right side up, a small piece of string waving under her hand caught her attention. Alice held the shotgun by the stock while her other hand grabbed the dangling thing. Between her thumb and pointer finger, she held onto a tea tag that read “10/6th”. With a gentle yank, Alice watched as the tag and its string dissipated in her hands like parting mist. Moments later it appeared, neatly retied to the shotgun’s chamber handle.

“Alice!” Toland’s faraway voice echoed after her.

The Titan put her curiosity aside, attaching the gun to her back, before running out the door. Alice sprinted down dark corridor after dark corridor, to keep up with Toland’s wispy form. His incandescent light parted the darkness, casting long shadows in his wake, as if he were cleaving through a thick veil. “The path you walk is a treacherous one,” Toland began as he started to ascend a steep incline, “as the foe who stands before you has carved her home like a festering tick.” The former Warlock shapeshifted to human form, striding up stone steps heaped with Hive-gunk and barnacles. His ghostly boots and long robes made no sound with each successive tread, only the baritone of his voice carried into the air.

Alice took the stairs in twos as she sprinted up its length, following after Toland’s billowing figure, soaking up the knowledge like a sponge. “Ir Akäi is one of many pieces in the tangled web of Hive infestation. Like those before her, the Wizard clawed her way up the ranks using the sword logic.” The unsung man laughed humorlessly as he paused on the upper landing, turning to watch her sprint to meet him. “Her most defining attribute is her…unorthodox…use of brute intellect.”

“What makes her ‘unorthodox’?” Alice breathed.

“How are you with puzzles?” he asked.

“Fair, I guess,” she answered.

As Alice crested the incline of the stairwell, Toland shrunk to orb size, bobbing in the air as if he were hurrying her along. “This is where we part,” Toland chuckled, the sound echoing off the walls. “Meet me on the other side of the room.” His light winked out of existence as she passed through an archway leading into a long and rectangular chamber.

Along the sides of the walkway were crimson pillars that stretched from floor to ceiling and seeped a sap-like substance the color of amber. Between their equidistant gaps were jagged chandeliers that cast deep shadow toward the corners and borders of the room. At the end of the chamber, was a raised platform with a large orange glowing sac. It pulsed with life, moving with undulating rhythm like dancing gelatin.

"Perhaps it is no mere coincidence that Ir Akäi has surfaced,” Eris’ finally spoke, cutting through the stifling silence. Her tone was low and speculative, like a thoughtful mention. “She has only recently asserted her power, months after _the_ Guardian slayed Hashladûn. Fell one foe and more take its place, like weeds in a garden. We must uproot this Deathsinger, this—usurper—before she becomes a permanent pest,” Eris added. 

Quickly, the Titan pulled the shotgun from her back and pumped the stock, the slide chambering with a _click-click_. Alice walked ahead, caution filling her steps, as she turned toward each support column with vigilance. One by one she checked the pillars in her progressive advance, finding nothing until a cry broke out from the entrance she came from. Whipping around, she found about five Thrall running toward her, screaming and clawing at the air.

Alice waited patiently, lining them up, and started to fire and chamber in rapid succession. Four Thrall died from precision blows, but the fifth remained standing as it staggered backwards. As she chambered another round, the shotgun _click-clicking_ , the remaining undead stumbled in place, hunching in on itself as it suddenly expanded. Her green eyes watched in curious horror as the Thrall screeched and stretched until it reached the height of the ceiling, its head bent off to the side as it stopped enlarging.

The Titan looked down to the shotgun and found that the lavender Hive-crystals were glowing brighter. The longer she stared, holographic images of Jade Rabbit heads appeared over the stones. The weapon reverberated in her hands, the fast pulses coming and going, as if it had begun to cackle with mischief. An angered shriek broke Alice from her astonishment, causing her to tumble backwards. The shotgun bucked in her hands as she hit the ground, a loud bang ringing out.

The once standing undead, crumbled to its knees as its size had begun to increase again, threatening to break through the roof. The Thrall thrashed around in vehement protest to its squashed state of being. Its arms swung back and forth, smacking, and breaking a couple pillars in panic. Alice screamed, somewhere between horror and excitement as she took aim at its head. With a loud _bang_ , the shotgun bucked, and jade Hive-crystals glowed in place of lavender. The Thrall shrunk until it neared normal size and Alice unloaded another precision shot. The Hive creature exploded, crumpling to the floor with finality in a mixture of carcass and mash.

“ _What just happened?!_ ” Alice thought, bringing the shotgun toward her face with both hands for inspection.

A moan rung out behind her and the Titan scrambled to her feet in response. Her green eyes searched the room until they fell upon the newly erupted Hive sac on the raised platform. Alice ran forward while chambering her shotgun as a large something, black and red, started to raise up from the floor with the push of its arms. Orange goo fell with mushy plops and the creature fell back to the floor, slipping on the yolk-like substance.

Alice charged onto the platform and tackled the creature with a forward charge and a determined scream on her lips. She and it went toppling forward in a heap of tangled limbs. They fought with smacks, punches, and elbows until finally, Alice managed to flip the hefty being underneath her. Jade eyes looked down the barrel of the mysterious shotgun with a hard stare, suddenly going soft with recognition.

“Valentine?” she asked, lowering her weapon.

“Alice?” The Hunter-Exo dropped the hands he had held over his face, the knife in his right-hand glinting under the dim chamber lighting. “Where—where are we?”

“Welcome to the Scarlet Keep,” she announced, standing to her feet.

“How did we get here?” he asked.

Alice offered him a hand and the Exo came to his feet, a full foot taller than her own average height. “I don’t know, but I’m glad to see you,” she said looking up to him. Her green eyes searched him over, watching curiously as yolky goop ran off the hood of his cloak in amber strings. She laughed, “You’ve got a little something.” Reaching up, she smoothed the thumb of her glove across his brow plating, removing the clump of goop so inelegantly attached.

Valentine grabbed her hand, the two locking gazes behind their helmets for a moment before a set of muffled chirping noises erupted from somewhere under his cloak. Alice’s brow raised in question as she lifted the sides of the Hunter’s hood that had been resting on his shoulders. Two little ghosts stared back at her, one with a familiar aqua eye, and a shell she did not recognize. The paint was copper red and on the top of either side of its lone eye were taped on ears. Beneath the aqua optic were long white strands of whiskers.

“Dinah?” Alice asked with a laugh. “What happened to you?”

“Why don’t you ask lover-boy,” the she-ghost groused, zipping to her Chosen’s helmet. “I missed you,” Dinah cried hysterically.

Alice laughed and cupped her hands around the feline shell, the hole in her heart finally sealed. “I missed you too.”


	3. The Bloody Queen's Aria

**(Part 3)**

_Fireteam, Green Burrow, harness your "brain" and your "brawn"_

_Only together can you fight, or risk being withdrawn_

_Brute intellect is what you need for a chance_

_To pursue life, and happiness, and a blossoming romance_

_From reality to fantasy, what is existence without substance?_

_Shuck out the bad and stick with unyielding persistence_

_The world is your oyster, its pearl your prize_

_Run the race and finish the course that tries_

_Do not judge a book by its overall cover_

_If you never look deep, you will never discover_

_That adventures once understood can yield a new twist_

_Open your mind to new possibilities that truly exist_

* * *

"When I woke up, it was just Mercury and me," Valentine explained. "Somehow, I was caught up in some chains hanging from the rafters." As the Hunter said this, he extended a hand palm-up in front of his chest. A sprightly ghost—silver and gold—appeared in a wink of brilliant light as a small cloud of transmat vapor wafted out from its hovering purchase. His blue one-eyed gaze seemed to scrutinize its Chosen for a moment before deciding to float upward with twitching pegs. "The moment I made it down from up...there...we were mobbed by all kinds of Scarlet-Hive. I couldn't seem to get away from them for very long either."

"How did you find Dinah?" Alice asked, hugging the feline-ghost to her cheek. "She should have been with me when I woke up."

As Valentine rubbed nervously at his head, Mercury made a quick revolution around the Exo before coming to an abrupt halt. At the sight of the Hunter’s soiled appearance, the ghost emitted a warbling noise, the sound of which was a mix between anger and defeat. Mercury sighed exasperatedly as an orb of blue light blossomed from his optical sphere, pushing the pyramid and crystal shaped pegs away from his center. "That's the freaky part," the Hunter said, pulling a luxurious rifle from his back. "It was by pure coincidence—chance, luck, whatever you wanna to call it—that I happened to find her." 

Valentine's white eyes flicked down to the weapon in his hands as a beam of light washed over him, glinting off the rifle's gold chamber plating. "By the time I made it to this room, there was a Deathsinger and her brood performing some kind of ceremony on this platform. She was holding a ghost—Dinah—in her claws singing something so..." Valentine seemed to trail off, his gaze growing distant from his methodical ministrations as his arms fell.

"Val?" Alice asked, placing a concerned hand on his shoulder.

The Exo scrunched his hands tightly around the pulse rifle's ivory handles before looking to Alice. His starlight eyes suddenly disappeared behind a knightly helmet as he straightened and attached the weapon to his back. "Yeah. Yeah—anyways," Valentine said, clutching at his armored chest where his artificial heart would have been. "I couldn't listen for long. The sound was awful. If it wasn't for Merc...I don't think I'd be alive. He canceled the noise to my helmet and told me my biometrics were off the chart. Some—something about my heart." As he said this, Alice could hear the echo of Eris' earlier warning about the Queen's lullaby in her mind. 

The Hunter rolled his new pauldrons, gunmetal grey with a sleek gold accent, as his cloak materialized with a quick ruffle. 

"What about Dinah?" Alice frowned as her hand dropped away from Valentine's shoulder. The she-ghost floated up toward the Exo's helmet and grazed his cheek, the action reminiscent of a cat slinking against its owner for affection. The Titan watched her teammate return the sentiment with a soft and reaffirming pat to the shell as his gauntlets were stitched together with light. Dinah bobbed in place for a moment before disappearing into transmat space. "What happened after that?"

"To be honest, I don't remember much before Merc cut the audio," he said while looking away from her. "I didn't have much time to regain composure. The Deathsinger spotted me and that's when things went downhill. I watched her retreat right as the Thrall and Acolytes blocked my path. I didn't have any other options, so I shot at her hands. She dropped Dinah like I had planned but when she fell…her shell hit the platform hard. For a quick moment I—I thought I saw light leak out." Valentine growled with frustration as he grabbed at the hood of his cloak and pulled it over his helmet. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" The Exo walked several paces away from Alice and eventually rested his hands on the back of his head, fingers stitched together.

The Titan removed her helmet, a pressurized hiss following suit as she placed it between her arm and hip. Alice walked over to him and reached for his shoulder, her glove catching against the material of his cloak. The Hunter flinched away from her, the weight of his shame erecting a wall between them. As Mercury finished materializing a pair of white support braces over Valentine's legs and boots, the ghost turned and regarded the Titan.

"He- _he_ feels responsible f- _for_ Dinah's cracked s- _shell_ ," Mercury stuttered, his voice warbling in and out like fractured feedback. "I- _I_ was able t- _to_ repair her w- _with_ another shell." He blinked and disappeared with a cloud of sapphire transmat vapor. 

"Val, it's not your fault," she said, dropping her hand to her side. 

"Yes, it is!" he yelled defensively, turning to her. The Exo's hands scrunched into fists and gestured them with a quick slamming motion for extra emphasis. "None of that would have happened if I hadn't taken the shot."

"You don't know that, and it’s just a shell," Alice volleyed, her voice tight with equivalent defensiveness.

“I thought I lost you!” he yelled desperately.

Alice took a step back, clearly startled at the meaning of his words. She felt her mouth open and close several times, but nothing came forth. Her mind was blank and reeling, struggling to come up with something to speak…to say.

“But you didn’t,” she finally replied, her words soft.

A loud cracking noise broke the tension in their rising argument as a part of the ceiling dislodged and crumbled to the ground with thunder. The Hunter and Titan backed up as another section of roofing started to fissure, causing the support columns to wobble and shake. Just as old stone started to rain down, the room caving from the lack of reinforcement, Valentine grabbed Alice's hand and ran for the exit. They barely made it through the door when the chamber collapsed altogether, the force of shock shoving them onto a terrace in a toppled heap. 

When Valentine crumpled to the ground, Alice had landed on top of his back with her face buried in his cloak. The Lightbearer rolled off to the side, clutching her aching nose as tears formed in her eyes. Dinah promptly appeared, hovering over her rolling Guardian with a critical gaze. The she-ghost poured a beam of blue light over her Chosen's visage, mending the bone and cartilage almost instantaneously. The Titan's small whimpers subsided, and her hand fell away as she went to wiggling her nose, her lips moving with the motion.

"A--ce?" A garbled and staticky voice called "Al-ce?"

The Lightbearer scrambled to her feet, turning her head this way and that. Her green eyes scanned the area until they found a cracked helmet resting against a large stone. Hunching over, Alice grabbed her helmet and placed it on her head. As she did this, the sound of white noise filled her ears. 

"A--ce? Ca- --u h--- m-?"

Dinah raced over to her Chosen and hastily went to work repairing the helmet. In seconds, the material glowed a luminous blue, its various defects and fissures stitching together renewed. Alice turned the piece in her hands all around and found no trace of its prior damage. It was good as new.

“Alice?" they tried again. "Are you there, Guardian?"

"Yes, I'm here, Eris," the Lightbearer answered.

"I was beginning to think you were lost," Eris' voice sighed. "My attempts in reaching you have proven unsuccessful till now."

"Maybe it was the room we were in?" Alice shrugged.

"Whatever the matter, it is of no importance,” she urged, “Something is happening on the Tower of Woe as we speak. The spire glows crimson, its rays bright like a lighthouse in the night. Hurry, Alice."

"Hurry? What's the rush?" Valentine stood and began patting himself off, clouds of debris shimmering in the ambient light from the jagged chandelier above.

"The rush?" came a yawning voice, dull and echoing as if it came from far off. "The forward wind sings of death, carrying upon its gale secret arrows purposed to reign upon its enemies." The Exo stopped his self-care as a ghostly man strode soundlessly toward them, his tattered robes like dancing clouds. "What's 'the rush', this one asks?" The man laughed humorlessly as he came to stand beside Alice. He folded his arms to himself as his right hand stroked the scruffy beard his former corporeal-self wore. "You are like an old candle. The last of the wax submerges the end of the wick, diminishing the flame until it is extinguished." 

“Hush now,” Eris chided Toland, her voice slightly amused. “Even in these depths a soft glow can cast deep shadows. A dim wick is a great light to the Hive, one they will endeavor to snuff out.”

Alice placed a hand to her chest, her shoulders shaking as she laughed quietly to herself. 

"Hey!" Valentine puffed up his chest, extending upward and outward with wounded dignity. "Don't talk about my wick! I am a bright light, thank you very much! Who are you, anyways?"

“This is Toland,” Alice giggled into a sigh while gesturing to the ghostly man. “And Eris is on the comm frequency.” After she pointed to her equipment, Alice gestured to the Exo with a sweeping hand. “Toland, this is Valentine.” The unsung man regarded the Hunter with a dismissive frown before turning his attention toward her.

“We must advance if we are to acquire the bloody Queen’s aria.” Toland gave a toothy grin as he looked over to Valentine. “Can I assume that you are capable of communicating while we travel?” The ageless man’s figure shrank in on itself, the white light coalescing into a fiery orb.

“I haven’t lost so much of my muchness as to be incapable of walking _and_ talking. However, don’t ask me to drink tea at the same time. Too messy.” Valentine winked at Alice before plunging ahead, strutting along with straight posture, and set shoulders. She felt a small smile of relief work at her lips upon seeing his witty composure return, though it was slight. Concern still nagged at her thoughts and try as she might, Alice couldn’t help but picture the events of the previous argument. Whether Human, Awoken, or Exo; why do men feel like they can’t share their weakness?

They progressed along in silence, traversing down a switchback staircase until the steps dropped off into a dark chasm below. Across the gap, part of an old and scorched bridge hung from the ledge of a cliff face. On either side of the suspension’s would-be walkway, green hive-crystals jutted out of the outcroppings surface like jagged teeth. Their light pulsed in and out as if the power within was being drained. Beyond that, a large and shimmering vortex floated mere inches above the ground. The expansive portal entrance danced with ribbons of black and white, like the bending of space as a spaceship propels into a jump. The reality bending gate, constructed with unknowable paranormal enchantment, appeared to be unguarded and unused for some time.

Valentine leaned forward, looking down and then across. “I wonder if there’s a bottom,” he pondered aloud.

“Jump and find out,” Toland said before floating over the expanse. “To progress ahead, you must be willing to make the plunge. The forward path is not as it seems. It requires a leap of faith.”

Alice and Valentine looked to each other for silent confirmation as an unspoken conclusion hatched between them.

“You’re insane!” Dinah yelled, appearing in a cloud of sapphire transmat vapor. She glided toward Toland, revolving around him with skepticism. “The portal is clearly on the other side. Why would they need to jump down to get across?” Toland said nothing as his wisp journeyed down the depths of the abyss, gradually shrinking into a speck. Dinah growled, turning to Alice while blinking her eye. “How infuriating! If you need me, you know where to find me.”

As Dinah left them, dissolving into transmat space, Mercury appeared in Valentine’s open hand. The ghost twitched its pyramid and crystal shaped pegs, as he looked between the Lightbearers. “Y- _yes_?”

“Merc, take a scan of the area,” Valentine directed, dropping his hand to his side.

As the ghost floated away from them, the communication feed crackled. “Search for Hive runes. Three to be precise,” Eris instructed. Mercury bobbed in the air as his scanning capabilities bounced off the walls with quick, tracing light. “They are rounded rocks, the size of a fist, etched with Hive magics.” Alice watched as Mercury’s light bordered the edges of all it touched. Under the old bridge two small knobs flickered with a white-blue glow, before fading back into the darkness.

“S- _scan_ complete,” Merc stated, “the t- _third_ rune is a- _about_ ten feet b- _below_ this platform.”

“I’ve got this,” Valentine said, excitement in his voice. He took a step down, his boot kicking rubble off the stairs and into the abyss.

“You know, I just can’t figure something out,” Alice began, watching the Exo prepare to jump.

“What’s that?” he inquired, peering over his shoulder at her.

“How did you get inside that Hive egg-sac?” she asked, her voice full of curiosity.

Valentine ran down the last of the steps, leapt, and swiftly plummeted the unfathomable depth. Harnessing solar energy, his hands set ablaze as he twirled around in the air with an aerial flip. “You don’t want to know,” he yelled, his voice gradually receding. Alice watched as fiery darts were flung out before- and behind him, speeding through the air like ammunition. Seconds later, the walls exploded where the Hive runes were located.

On the other side of the gap, where the remains of the bridge hung, the outcropping began to billow with green smoke. The Hive-mirage evaporated like a jade fog, revealing only more expansive nothingness. There was no bridge, no portal, and there never was. Suddenly violent crimson pierced the darkness from down below. Alice leaned forward and found a gargantuan crystal revolving in place underneath a portal. 

“ _This_ is what Toland meant,” Alice breathed.

“What do you see, Alice?” Eris asked after a moment.

“There’s a very, very large ruby crystal far below where I stand. It looks almost like one of those purple stones Savathûn’s Song formed out of Guardians on Titan. Just above it is a portal,” the Titan answered.

“Ir Akäi must have sacrificed far more than we realized,” Eris sighed darkly.

Alice ran down the last of the steps, leaping into the void and freefalling with her arms held out on either side of herself. She could feel the wind of resistance drag against her armor and the thwacking of her Titan’s mark flapping against her legs. The drop felt so quick and yet so long. Alice gathered the light almost subconsciously, directing and slowing her fall as if there were invisible propulsion jets attached to her armor. As she cleaved through the air, her heart thundered with fear and hope. Whatever waited for her beyond the doorway would change her destiny.

It would change her future.

The moment she dove through the dancing vortex, reality began to shift as it stretched and shrunk; matter assembling and disassembling. Somewhere in the portal, she heard a murderous shriek, the cry like a thousand scorned echoes. The Titan’s heart began to pound like a set of timpani drums, mallets rapping to the beat of her livelihood. _Tap-tap-tap-tap._ As Alice made it through the gateway, she fell to the ground in a sudden heap. Gasping for breath, she rolled onto her back as her heart began to expand and contract unnaturally. _Tap-tap-tap-tap._

Grabbing at her chest piece, the Titan thought her heart was going to explode. Her ears were ringing with white noise before numbness took over. Alice felt her limbs go lax as she was rendered helpless to the pain. The world above her twirled and warbled like her equilibrium was unbalanced. Even laying down, she felt like she was stuck between falling and rising.

Above the paralyzed Guardian, a curtain of crimson robes glided through the air like ribbons unfurling in the wind. Here in this room, however, there was no wind. As the shawls came closer, the face of an old Wizard came into focus. With an arcing loop, the enchantress fell atop the Titan, paralleling her horizontally as she floated some feet overhead. The stench of copper and stagnate decay perfumed the space between them like a thick and sultry smog. 

The corrupted Krill was unlike anything Alice had seen before. Her head was rounded like a Thrall, but hard and sleek like a carapace. She had three sets of eyes lining the sides of her skull, the first set being the largest and most beady crimson. From her chin, cranial horns traveled up her jawline until both met at the anterior in a point. Just above the eyes were spiky horns which made Alice think of a crown the way they tapered up and back.

" _Ir Akäi,_ " she thought to herself.

With a piercing cry, the Wizard opened her mouth, exposing jagged teeth too numerous to count. Her hide was mostly black save for mottled spots of crimson, a stark contrast to her abyssal color. Overall, she looked like a Black Widow in Hive garments without all the legs and silken string. The conniving creature spoke to her in a voice that seemed to be both in her mind and in her ears, accompanied by shrill hisses and screeches.

“ _Every rose has its thorn, each thistle like the blade of a sword—sharp, unyielding, and true. There is both death and beauty in its intrinsic design. By this logic, one could surmise that 'beauty is pain’. Only the reddest and most vibrant of these extends the desirable quintessence required for the reckoning. For an architect to design and fabricate, one must know what it is that they intend to build upon._ ” Alice cried out in pain, shrinking into herself as she held her head. The sound of the Wizard’s voice was piercing like a sharp knife cutting into an already aching brain. She could not block it out. She could not breathe. “ _Underneath the petals of a rose is the stem of life, and inside it embodies the currency of existence._ ”

“ _The weak cannot remain, for by the way of sorrow, existence is pain—a place they cannot endure._ " Ir Akäi clenched her three-clawed hand into a fist, a hiss erupting from behind cold-blooded creed. " _I will take your heart, a valuable ransom, and with it I will satisfy ascendancy. The Light and your lifeblood are my footstools, mere steppingstones to the throne world of my making. Come little flower, festoon my cathedra. Be the wreath to my diadem._ "

The Hive-Queen cackled into a growl as her mouth closed, obscuring her sharp teeth. “ _Let your existence be final as the strong conquer the weak once more. The last thing you will know is the song of rupture. The last thing you will feel is the woe of pain as you are sung into silence. The last thing you will do is offer up your lifeforce which will become my crowning jewel. Bleed well._ ”

As the enchantress breathed deep, her chest expanding with the motion, the _pop_ of a three-round-burst rang out. Alice lulled her head to the side, her eyes fixing on Valentine. The Exo was in a kneeling position, pulling away from the scope attached to his pulse rifle. As the Wizard turned and beheld Valentine, the horns on her head broke off like snapped toothpicks. 

“If she’s the rose, then I’m the thorn,” he yelled, successfully distracting the songstress.

Free from the paralysis, Alice jumped to her haunches and sprung up like a rocket. Grabbing Ir Akäi’s bony skull, the Titan pulled her helmet back and smashed it into the enchantress’ forehead. The Deathsinger reeled up into the air with a loud snarl, holding onto her face as she flew into a portal. The sound of her woes faded as Alice landed on her feet, air hissing from her fractured helmet.

“Al-ce!” Eris’ garbled voice yelled. “Pr-tec- yo-r—”

The feed died as the helmet split in half, falling to the ground with a _thump-thump_. Alice kicked the remains of her helm with the toe of her boot and watched as it toppled over. Within a blink of an eye, the Titan felt the warm and snug encasement of a new piece of headgear. The visual display from her viewport lit up immediately, a wall of white-colored code scrolling rapidly in the background.

“Hello again! Welcome back to the fortress for your skull,” a feminine voice greeted. The software for the Insurmountable Skullfort was as cheery as Alice last remembered. “Please keep your head inside the fortress at all times. Otherwise, we cannot ensure the safety of your skull from severe head trauma.” The Titan rolled her shoulders and popped her neck, before clenching her fists. Small blue ribbons of young electricity crackled in her hands, fizzling out as she released her fingers. The Skullfort rambled through its protocol until it came to its version of a pep-talk regarding enemies being like meadows. Alice felt a grin spread across her lips as she unholstered the shotgun from her back just as the floor beneath her feet began to tremble.

“I don’t like this,” Valentine yelled, jumping up.

The two met in the middle of the room, putting their backs together, with firearms at the ready. The wide and circular platform with four equidistant crimson pillars descended into a dark shaft. Shadowy alcoves lined the walls for every level they passed; a strange sensation of foreboding was palpable in the present atmosphere. Tri-eyed stares of jade and contempt glistened from mysterious niches. No shots were fired; only glared. Tangled cobwebs undulated in the breeze of their passing, lit torches flickering in a sort of billowy dance. 

All eyes were upon them, but nothing dared to move, as if frozen with enmity.

Along the way the platform began to hitch, the sound of stone scraping stone jarring to their ears. As the lift came to a screeching halt, the two stumbled to their knees. One moment they were slaves to momentum and in the next, prisoners to gravity as the Hive conveyance system plummeted down the spire's shaft, hurtling so fast it left its occupants in the space above. Alice and Valentine fell freely, tumbling for a time in uncontrolled somersaults until they flipped onto their bellies.

Several floors below, Alice saw the soft glow of yellow-orange light from two opposite sides of the tower's walls. The closer they hurtled, the more that luminescence appeared like golden sunlight. Harnessing the Light to her feet, the Titan propelled herself forward with inhuman control. Bringing her arms forward, she grabbed for Valentine and held on tight. With her arms secured over his right shoulder and under his left arm, Alice summoned the Light to her feet once more. While the Exo held onto her arms, the Titan softened their hurtling plummet into a glide, the drag of wind beneath their feet. They floated downward until they dropped the last couple feet onto a ledge with auriferous resplendence. 

Heavy boots stomped down in unison on an amalgamation of stone, barnacle, and resin-like substance. The thump was almost mute in stark contrast to the ensuing crunch and squish of diversified protoplasm—both solid and liquid. 

"Ew!" Valentine complained. 

Alice chuckled as the Exo picked up a boot, strings of all-too-familiar amber goop sticking like a bad case of gum-to-shoe. Turning toward the unknown before them, they walked into a cyclical hallway with an encircling terrace view of white, lunar terrain on its right side. All about them were small and large egg-sacs, each waving and bouncing to the rhythm of life within. The ceiling was scarlet save for the areas bejeweled with yellow-orange crystals; their light constant and vibrant. Around these precious rocks, cobwebs fell like silken ladders and entangled themselves into the glowing fauna sprouting from the floor like weeds. 

Very carefully, they tiptoed around the foyer with Valentine leading the way. Alice watched the Hunter tread along a forged path of his making with secrecy in every step. His head moved about constantly, his eyes no doubt vigilant with extreme caution. His posture was confident but relaxed as if this was a mere casual stroll through the park. 

"About earlier," Valentine began, "I'm sorry—"

Just then a chorus of cackles broke out, the sound like ten voices resounding over each other. Both Titan and Hunter quieted, looking all around for the noises that began to fill the room. As green eyes searched high and low, a flash of amethyst caught her eye near a dense patch of egg-sacs clumped and piled together. Alice jogged past her teammate, racing for what she knew to be a mysterious rabbit. 

"It's you!" she yelled, sliding to her knees as she came upon the statuary. 

The rabbit rested between fauna and the latticing network of barnacles tracing up a support beam. Its eyes glittered with mischief as it gazed upon Alice, watching her every move as she removed her helmet. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

" _Me?_ " it questioned as its eyes flickered. " _You mean ‘we’._ "

"Hey! It's that rabbit from earlier," Valentine said with awe. "But there's more of them."

Just as Valentine came to Alice's side, the she-Guardian noticed that two more rabbits appeared next to the first. Three sets of purple eyes looked back and forth between the Lightbearers, an unspoken hunger in the midst of them. They laughed together as they disappeared, their enigmatic guffawing the only proof of their prior existence. Even after blinking, Alice could still see spots of amethyst bespeckling the back of her eyelids. 

" _We're hungry. You have fed two of us already. What is three more?_ " a second rabbit inquired.

" _Feed us_ ," the third encouraged. 

" _Give us rice cakes and then we will go our way. A reward for us, means a reward for you...from each of us_ ," the first revealed. " _Aren't you curious as to what we can offer you?"_

"Didn't Milly tell us not to feed one of these things?" Valentine questioned, scratching his head while looking at Alice.

The Titan shrugged, standing to her feet, as she placed the helmet on her head. "The damage is done. I've fed them before."

" _This one does not trust us_ ," the second rabbit spoke, an air of hurt in its voice.

" _It seems he does not want his friends_ ," the third surmised with poignant guilt tripping. 

"Friends?" Alice asked, suddenly perking up. "Sola? Luna? Milly?! You know where they are?"

" _Help us, help you_ ," the lunar hares spoke in unison.

As Alice put her hand before herself, palm-up, Valentine grabbed her wrist. Somewhere in all of this, the Exo had removed his helmet. His piercing starlight eyes searched the blonde Titan with concern, his purple vocal processor glowing in and out like artificial breath. "Alice, this is madness. Don't do it," he sighed, "we don't know what they are fully capable of. Think about it. They got us into this mess as it stands." The she-Guardian lightly yanked her wrist, hoping to free it from his iron grasp, but was unsuccessful.

"Val—" she began to protest.

"Listen to him, Alice," Dinah said, appearing in a cloud of sapphire transmat vapor. "Since all of this started, they've brought nothing but chaos." The feline-like Ghost hovered in the air, her pegs roaming around her optical orb with apprehension. Floating closer to her Guardian, she stopped fidgeting. "Nothing good can come from them. They don't know where the others—"

"Yes, there is," Alice answered, cutting off Dinah's train of thought. "What about that red gem they gave us? They even brought me my shotgun, new and improved in fact."

"Those are two small deeds, if that _is_ what you want to call it," the she-Ghost complained.

"At least it shows consistency," the Titan pleaded. "Trust me, please."

Dinah looked to Valentine, a look of desperation in her aqua eye. The Hunter let go and gave a nod before the ghost disappeared wordlessly in a wink of light and cloud. 

"I trust you and so does Dinah," he answered. "We don't like this idea, but we trust you."

Alice nodded in appreciation and smiled. "Dinah, the rice cakes, please."

The ghost said nothing in reply as three yellow confections appeared in Alice's hands. Just like the first time, each was round and jelly-like with green garnish at its center. The trio of rabbit statues cackled as they appeared on the floor next to Alice's boots. Their rigid forms wobbled back and forth, the action like excited dogs before being fed. The Titan placed the sweets in front of each statue and in that same moment, large bites appeared in the food. The rabbits munched loudly with appreciation and did so until all the cakes were consumed. 

" _Follow our voices_ ," they said together, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The Titan and Hunter raced after the sounds of laughter until they found three greying eggs, their internal glow dulling as the red crystals encircling them seemed to shine brighter. The lunar hares appeared on top of the sacs, interjecting with a trio of tsk-tsk's.

" _Your friends are inside these eggs, imprisoned by the work of the undead. What you thought was across, but was naught, is the woven magic thread. No ordinary weapon can pierce these sacs, no matter the damage you spread. Unveil the trickery before your eyes or all of you will die misled_ ," the first rabbit spoke with guile.

"Great! I hate riddles," Valentine sighed.

" _It's because you're the second fiddle_ ," the hares spoke in unison before disappearing one after the other. Their cackles echoed around the hall for one small moment before fading into silence.

"What you thought was across but was...naught..." Alice began but trailed off.

"I can tell you what was 'naught'...their help," the Hunter complained and placed his helmet on his head. "What was the purpose of all this?"

As Alice repeated the phrase to herself under her breath, dismissing Valentine's grousing, until an idea came to mind. Removing the shotgun from her back, the Lightbearer took aim at the red crystals glowing brighter yet. "What was 'naught'—the bridge—and the ‘magic’—Hive-runes." The Exo backed up as his female counterpart shot each cluster one by one to smithereens. Each crystalline fragment shimmered like red glitter as debris clouds wafted from their smoking remains. 

The world around them began to shift and change, billowing with a dense and rolling jade fog accompanied by the stench of copper-decay.

" _You think yourself so ingenious you wretched worm?_ " the voice of Ir Akäi snarled. " _There is no honor—no glory—in delaying the inevitable. Give up this self-righteous nihilism that fuels your cowardice to live when you are outnumbered—outmatched._ "

When the mirage evaporated the nebulous clouds receded like a rolling tide. Soon after the Titan found herself laying on her back. As she sat up, a wave of nausea washed over her before a thundering ache culminated in her forehead. Alice wobbled in place, something beneath her creaking in protest. The sound was low and dull like the bending of a twig before it snaps. Under her unsteady perch, a pile of old bones shifted and groaned. The air of familiarity washed over Alice as she looked upwards, finding the room appeared to have limitless height and incandescent light funneling toward a pinhole. Beyond the soft light was a dense veil of darkness in which the pile of bones seemed to vanish into.

" _Do you not know that you have been in my court—my presence, my sight?_ "Ir Akäi's bodiless voice taunted. " _You have been and always will be where I leave you. Never far...never gone from my side._ "

“I know this place,” Alice said under her breath. “This fog. These bones. The darkness. I’ve been here before.”

The she-Guardian slid down the mountain of osseous matter, each skeleton rattling and scurrying in her wake. When Alice came to the foot of the bone hill, she jumped to her feet with a shotgun in hand. Quickly she pumped the slide action, chambering the weapon with a _click-click_.

“ _Just like before, you wandered these halls time and again. Always wondering, but never furthering. Come now, Alice! Let us see the rippling effect of your presence. Let us divine the futility in your progression, or rather ‘retrogression’.”_ Ir Akäi screeched with dark delight, her voice echoing all around like a monophony. “ _Humanity lacks the capacity for creativity—ingenuity—for the grander design._ ”

As Alice walked forward, phantom images of past events played themselves out before her like holographic projections. Valentine hanging from the rafters and chased by a mob of Thrall and Acolytes. Valentine fighting for Dinah and his subsequent demise preceding his Hive-egg burial. An event she had not witnessed but saw unfold surrounding Milly and the Twins. The trio worked to fight off rampaging Ogres and succumbed to defeat. Their ensuing deaths were horrific and their preservation within Hive-eggs repugnant. They were alive but dead, prisoners in their swaddling sleep.

Then, it was Alice’s turn.

The Hive projections depicted Alice’s entire journey from start to current but seemed twisted, often changing small events like alternate threads of reality. Sometimes, the Fireteam met all together. Sometimes, individually. Sometimes, not at all. It was like they were reliving their worst nightmare over and over. Living and dying repeatedly.

Never progressing.

Never furthering.

Amidst the assault of portrayals attempting to break her mind and rip out her hope, Alice saw something that sparked an idea like a crack of Arc energy. Her newly improved shotgun had been missing something from all these images of death and defeat. Examining the weapon with renewed wonder and urgency, she also pulled out a red and unrefined gem from her pocket as her impossible idea continued to take shape.

Ir Akäi’s earlier words rang in Alice’s ears, unlocking the forward path with one final mystery. “ _The last thing you will do is offer up your lifeforce which will become my crowning jewel_.” The Titan turned the shotgun in her hands, her eyes racing to the peculiar slot near the trigger guard. The hole was deep and jaggedly shaped like the weapon was missing a certain piece. Now that she knew what it was for, Alice took the red gem and popped it in with ease.

The moment it was secured within the slot, the shotgun shuddered in her hands and the crystals turned a violent shade of crimson. The long barrel began to pulse with life, flickering in and out to the beat of her heart. Alice did not know what this thing was for, but it did not take a genius to know it amplified power.

A final projection materialized before her as she shook out her muscles in anticipation of a final confrontation. She and her fireteam surrounded the Deathsinger, weapons aimed, and firing together in one accord. Just as the blows met with the Wizard’s active shield, emblazoned with Solar orange, the scene before her turned black as the images fled away. 

“ _Now that you have seen the truth, you must know the end of your fate is destiny. I have seen it. It has been foretold. The only thing standing between a Guardian and their fate is the anchor of light keeping them from drifting out to the sea of darkness."_ Ir Akäi snarled, " _Give up the Ghost!_ " Alice trudged ahead, thankful more than ever that her journey was not made alone this time. 

Dinah was with her. 

" _You are but one, and I am many. Give up the Ghost!_ " The Deathsinger's relentless taunts rattled on, prophesying bitter demise and anguish but Alice dared to hope. She dared to dream of the impossible despite the lies tickling her eardrums tempting her to fail. She dared to believe that anything was possible so long as she continued to walk securely in that faith.

" _You're not alone_ ," the Titan recited to herself from within. " _You're not alone!_ " 

Stopping short of the old hatchery, an explosion of heat from dead ahead mushroomed upward with Solar energy. The air smelled like charred flesh carried on the winds of ash. Alice raced after the waning light, focusing on the shadowy figure dancing furiously in defense. As the fire died out a crimson glow lit the cavern, casting long shadows under a rising crystal in the yonder horizon. 

" _Give up the Ghost or I will rip it from you, Wretch!_ " Ir Akäi yelled, her rage shaking the floor of the cavern. 

The sound of alternating fire sang through the air, growing louder until the crack of Void exploded from on high. Alice watched as shrapnel rained down as spheres of purple energy sprayed outward in spiteful whiplash. Four shadowy figures met together on a metallic plate with a blossoming halo of white light as they fired on all sides. As Thrall hammered their position, the Titan sprang forward with hands above her head. Lacing her fingers together, Alice crashed down to the ground with a single fist as blue ribbons of havoc danced outward from the zone of impact. Their enemies sizzled into nothingness as the Lightbearer rolled toward the plate and onto her feet. 

"'Bout time you've joined us," an English proper voice chastised. "We've been here since the Awoken came into existence!"

Alice laughed, "Do you talk to Mara Sov that way, Milly?"

"Thank the Traveler you're not the bloody Queen. I think a team of Corsair-assassins would be after me if they heard," the Warlock laughed with a shake in her voice.

"Enough chit-chat, my lovelies," Valentine's voice cut in, "we've got a job to do. The plate is almost done summoning the bridge behind us."

"Yeah!" the twins affirmed in unison.

"There's just one problem," Milly squeaked, "one us will have to stay behind."

"Not us!" the twins yelled. "I'm with her!" they said shooting a thumb toward their identical counterpart.

"No one gets left behind. It's not an option," Alice barked.

"If there's no one to stand on the bridge, then it will fade out," Milly informed. "Someone will have to stay."

Alice sighed, "How long till it fades out?"

"We could make it halfway at best," Valentine said.

"Then...," Alice paused, "I'll throw you."

"What?!" Milly croaked.

"If Lady Efrideet could throw Lord Saladin like a spear, then I can throw you!" Alice reasoned.

Valentine began laughing like a mad man. "You're crazy! I like crazy."

"Are you out of your mind?" Milly squeaked as the plate beneath them shuddered.

"The bridge is complete," Valentine assessed.

"No time to argue. Move your cheeks!" Alice said, shoving the Warlock toward the bridge.

The fivesome ran out onto the overpass woven together with old thaumaturgy and light. As they made headway, a lone island came into view underneath the crimson crystal now an unfathomable height above them. The bridge's power dulled the closer they came to the middle of the bridge, its starkly white contrast fading to pink in the red glow. 

"Sola! Luna! Cut your audio!" Alice yelled. Without another word the Titan grabbed the twins by the collar of their robes, spun in place, and tossed them toward the end of the bridge. Valentine went next, hurtling through the air, somersaulting onto his feet when he landed. 

Milly was last, shaking her head furiously. "No. No. No. I don't want to do this," she said, her robes shaking with trepidation.

"We don't have time to argue. Cut your audio," Alice said, grabbing her teammate's wrists.

"Alice, I'm afraid!” Milly whimpered, tugging at her wrists. “I’ve never felt like this my entire Risen life. She's been talking to me in my head all this time. Please! Don’t throw me over there.” The Titan’s eyes poured over her friend, noticing several things at once: the way her helmet shook; the crystals of her robe’s lapel glinting, and the way the skirts of her robe swayed.

"It's alright Milly. You're not alone. We've got this. Now trust me." Alice gripped even tighter to the Warlock's wrists, spun, and sent her flying. Guilt tugged at the Titan for in that moment, she chose not to be a comforter but a leader. "I'm sorry Milly," she whispered. Alice knew the taunts and the way that Ir Akäi burrowed underneath the skin. The Deathsinger lived up to the beloved title that the Hive most craved—worshipped even. 

Alice ran her hardest, pin needles of fright poking at her as the bridge faded in and out. At the last moment, the Titan jumped as far as she could propel herself. Self-assured that she would make it, Alice reached out for the island's craggy ledge. Disappointment struck through her like the zing of lightning as she came up short, snatching at nothingness. Just as she thought she would fall to her death, a pair of hands grabbed her by the wrist as the rest of her slammed into rock. The Lightbearer grunted, the wind knocked out of her, though she clung for dear life.

"I've got you," Valentine yelled.

As Alice scrambled up the side of the island with the Hunter's help, a stream of Solar fire zipped past her helmet. The Titan dove forward, tackling her teammate to the ground. The two went rolling away from the ledge as inky miasma clouded the area like dense smog. Alice and Valentine broke apart, resting on the flat of their backs as restricting sluggishness made it hard to move as pricks of pain needled at them.

" _Did you think you could best me? No! You are dumb animals being led to the slaughter, silent before the end!_ " The Deathsinger roared with disdain as she descended toward the island floor with an arching loop before whirling upright with a clenched fist. Her black-widow appearance shimmered under the crimson glow, twinkling with beads of moisture that rolled down her forehead. Where her crown of horns should have been were tiny nubs and a visibly fractured skull. " _Your Light is offensive! You will be snuffed out!_ " 

As the Deathsinger shrieked, a feeling both hot and cold washed over Alice. It was like the warmth of life had been sapped from the core of her being. The bravado of her youth and the freedom of strength washed away with a shake of finite capability. She felt the ache of mortality in its place, like old bones brittle with age. The spark of Light beneath her fingertips had fled away as if it were poured out of a bucket.

The Wizard began circling her tri-clawed hands in front of herself as a wisp of light formed with the motion before shooting up toward the crystal. As the font pierced through the rock, a red beam erupted out from the top, and up the spire’s shaft.

“ _Blood is the sacrifice_ ,” Ir Akäi explained, “ _and Light a tool for attunement—a conduit for self-made creation_.” She laughed, “ _Now for the harmony to weave these things together._ ” As the corrupted Krill opened her mouth, the cry of a thousand scorned echoes wavered in and out of pitch until white noise rang in Alice’s ears. The Lightbearer’s chest palpitated unnaturally, her heart thumping erratically in her chest as it threatened to burst.

The world around the Titan seemed to sway forward and back, her equilibrium out of balance. As her eyes rolled about, a fiery orb of white light floated above her as ribbons danced all around its form. “ _Toland_ ,” she thought, “ _here at last. In time for my death._ ” Some part of her laughed with morbid recognition, slightly tickled but mostly offended.

Toland’s luminous body pulsed several times as if he were speaking, but Alice could not hear it over the ringing. Something wet trickled from her ears and finally dawning realization hit her like an Ogre’s eyebeam. She couldn’t hear. The unsung man took a ghostly human form, his hands instantly cupping at the sides of his head. Toland repeated the action once again, but this time mouthing the word “ _ears_ ”.

Alice worked her eyes, blinking a series of commands at her Skullfort’s HUD—she hoped. Seconds passed by and her heart slowed, thumping to a more natural pace. The ringing in her ears were softer yet, fading slowly, but fading, nonetheless. The miasma’s buffeting sting receded just as the thick smog had. It was like they were in a small pocket of fresh air surrounding Toland’s presence.

The Titan rose to her feet, swaying at first like a drunkard though she was free from self-induced intoxication. As she came to full height, Alice found her phantom guide pointing toward the Deathsinger too busy caroling deathly hallows to her teammates to notice them. Toland put a hand under his chin, pointer finger extended, as he motioned the gesture forward. In the next moment, he opened his mouth and began pointing.

“ _The song_ ,” she reminded herself. “ _He needs the song!_ ”

Alice nodded as strength came to her fingertips, the Light pouring into her core once more. In her mind’s eye she could picture a stormy sky and the way thunder boomed through the clouds. The crack of lightning as it pierced through grey monotony like a veiled threat of nature’s unbridled temper. The brewing cyclone within picked-up with a light breeze, not mature enough yet to be a bluster or a strong gale force.

About forty feet away, the Twins dragged Milly out from the miasma smog to a small sliver of the island veiled by a cluster of rocks. Sola brought the Warlock to safety behind the stones before joining Luna who had remained firing with her sidearm. Their JabberHäkke-D’s barked in rapid succession both taking turns between shooting and reloading.

A stirring of movement to her right caught Alice’s attention and the Titan found Valentine standing to his feet swaying with weakness. Bygones was nestled in the meat of his shoulder, his head cocked to the side as he squinted through the scope. As he fired from his scout rifle, Valentine’s aim was unrefined due to the pain wrought by the miasma surrounding him. Though it took some time, the Solar shield encasing Ir Akäi’s form was whittled away leaving her vulnerable to the elements.

With every couple of pops, the Wizard would reel backwards as each shot jarred her this way and that. Alice lunged ahead and sprang into the air. Reaching out for the enemy, she clamped her gauntleted hands around the Deathsinger’s bony shoulders. Driving her armored knee straight into the Songstress’ decrepit spine, a burst of Arc energy surged from the strike. Alice then proceeded to use the momentum to drive the Wizard into the chitinous floor. 

Landing on her feet, the Titan swiftly extracted her mysterious shotgun from her back as Ir Akäi rolled over. The aged creature pushed herself up, her robes hanging heavy with defeat. With a hiss of disdain, she barred her jagged teeth. Alice stepped forward and kicked the Wizard back to the ground, leaving her boot on the Deathsinger’s chest. Keeping the pressure in place, the Lightbearer aimed the barrel of her shotgun to the Hive-Queen’s forehead.

Alice’s jade green eyes met with Ir Akäi’s crimson red, studying the detail with complete awareness. There was something beyond rage in the Wizard’s eyes, a deep hate surfacing from the depth of her soulless hide. A hatred so cold and bottomless, it appeared ageless—timeless perhaps—as if it were woven into the very fabric of her being. For one moment, a flicker of pity ran through the Titan as her finger hovered over the trigger. In that hesitation, the Deathsinger broke into a chant, indiscernible to the Human tongue. The chorus was much different than before causing the Songstress to move her jaw quickly and unnaturally.

Just as Alice’s grip on the shotgun began to falter, a bright glow of pure radiance appeared by her side. The Titan watched with morbid fascination as a wisp of blackish current traveled up and out of the Wizard’s mouth. The trail of essence flowed into Toland’s spherical form, syphoning the power like a suctioning funnel. Strength began to flood the Guardian’s veins like the crashing of an ocean’s rolling tide. As the last of the Deathsinger’s breath escaped from her mouth, a look of helplessness glossed over her eyes as she was rendered effectively mute. Confusion overcame the Hive-Queen’s countenance as she instinctively clawed at her throat with a panicky rage.

“I’m a Guardian, I make my own destiny. The Light will always shine in the deepest darkness; overcoming evil with good!” Alice yelled. “You can never snuff out my Light because I won’t let you have it.” Pressing the shotgun to Ir Akäi’s fractured skull with renewed resolve, Alice felt the power of conviction course through her. Her finger squeezed against the trigger as she yelled, “I am a Child of the Light, and you will return to the Deep that birthed you.”

The shotgun bucked in her hands as a silver light exploded beneath the barrel. The point-blank headshot had two unexpected effects. The first caused the Wizard to implode, and the second caused an explosion like sparking fireworks. Where a body should have been, there was a carbon silhouette of a rose where the Deathsinger’s figure once was. Alice backed away while turning the shotgun in her hands. The weapon hummed with energy though it somehow seemed satiated…fulfilled. The slotted crystal near the trigger guard no longer bled red, replaced with the purity of white light. To Alice’s amazement, she realized the final enhancement had added a vorpal lethality to the already peculiar weapon.

A sound similar to the shattering of glass caught the Lightbearer’s attention, just as the ambient crimson glow receded from the cavern. Looking up, Alice watched as blood-red shrapnel fell away. In its place was a great and unadulterated luminance, its power familiar like an old friend. As the white light blossomed with intensity, Alice heard Valentine call her name. Just as her eyes locked with his, they were enraptured by a sudden flash that conquered the darkness with a concussive clap of thunder.

The last thing she could think of was how she loved his starlit gaze.


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There's a canon divergence at the end, buuuuuut you'll probably like it anyways. {cheesy smile} 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ~ProphetessMinty

**Epilogue**

**_Paint Them Red_ **

**_Shotgun_ **

“ _Blood is the sacrifice_ , _and Light a tool for attunement…”—Ir Akäi_

**_Lore:_ **

_Every rose has its thorn, each thistle like the blade of a sword—sharp, unyielding, and true. There is both death and beauty in its intrinsic design. By this logic, one could surmise that 'beauty is pain’. Only the reddest and most vibrant of these extends the desirable quintessence required for the reckoning. For an architect to design and fabricate, one must know what it is that they intend to build upon._ _Underneath the petals of a rose is the stem of life, and inside it embodies the currency of existence._

_The weak cannot remain, for by the way of sorrow, existence is pain—a place they cannot endure. I will take your heart, a valuable ransom, and with it I will satisfy ascendancy. The Light and your lifeblood are my footstools, mere steppingstones to the throne world of my making. Come little flower, festoon my cathedra. Be the wreath to my diadem._

_Let your existence be final as the strong conquer the weak once more. The last thing you will know is the song of rupture. The last thing you will feel is the woe of pain as you are sung into silence. The last thing you will do is offer up your lifeforce which will become my crowning jewel. Bleed well._

* * *

**(1 Week Later)**

Since the passing of Fireteam Green Burrow’s unexpected journey, all members agreed to go on sabbatical in light of their individual epiphanies. Milly exchanged her scholarly tendencies for the warrior’s way, realizing that there was much more to life than seeking knowledge. The Warlock was lacking experience, passion, and the bold character she realized a Guardian of Light needed to have. The Twins did what they did best and fought their way through the Crucible ranks, winning favor with Lord Shaxx. Unfortunately, they started competing with each other after realizing they both could not have him.

Alice and Valentine however, remained together, closer than ever. Since the collapse of Ir Akäi’s court, the duo went searching daily for the pesky rabbits inhabiting the hidden places on Luna. With the last rabbit fed, making ten in total, they went to convene with Eris and Toland. There were still questions needing answers. Were there any signs of Ir Akäi or her court? Had Green Burrow completely wiped them out? What happened at the moment of the crystal’s collapse? 

The biggest one of all surrounded the curious shotgun in her possession. 

* * *

Alice held tightly to Valentine with her arms wrapped around his waist as they sped over lunar terrain. Archer’s Line was left behind forgotten as they traversed the winding road, dipping and rising at its behest. Resting her head against his back, her blonde hair ruffled wildly as the wind blew against it. Jade eyes stared wistfully into the starry sky above as her mind wrestled between loud thoughts and quiet peace. She sighed and gave the Hunter in her arms a gentle squeeze.

“What are you thinking?” he yelled over the noise of their travel. “You’ve been quiet for a while now.”

“Oh, you know, all the things that happened to us in the last week,” she replied loudly.

“What have you decided about the shotgun?” As he asked his question, Valentine leaned the sparrow into the next curve.

“I—uh—I don’t think I should keep it,” Alice yelled.

“What?!” The Hunter evened out the sparrow once the road straightened, then quickly peered over his shoulder. His starlight eyes focused on her for a moment before returning his attention to the road. “After all that hard work you put into it, making one of the most powerful weapons in existence, and you’re not going to keep it?” He whistled. “That…that sucks.”

She laughed lightly, “Tell me about it! It’s like losing one of my babies. As a Gunsmith it really is a huge blow to my self-esteem.”

“It’s nothing on you, my Dragonfly,” he assured.

Alice squeezed him again, before leaning back. “I know, but it still…sucks.” She sighed, “After that visit from our local Lone Ranger, I can’t figure out which was stranger. Us unexpectedly taking on a Deathsinger or having a one-on-one conversation with Shin Malphur.” The Titan shivered. “He gave me the creeps.”

Valentine chuckled. “Out of all the things to make you ‘freak out’, it’s _that_ guy?!”

“Well, if anything he said was true, then I don’t want the Dredgens of Yor knocking on my door. And besides, ever since I modded the ‘Paint Them Red’, I can’t help but think that gem was no ordinary gem.” Alice quieted, unsure if she should speak aloud what she had become worried about in the past week.

“What’s up?” Valentine asked, realizing she was holding back. Again, he turned to look at her before returning his attention to the road. As they came close to Eris’ lunar command post, the Hunter slowed the sparrow. With the slight drag, it caused Alice’s hair to sweep forward over her eyes.

“I don’t know…,” Alice paused, “I think that gem was cut from that blood crystal we saw in Ir Akäi’s court. Sometimes late at night, I think I’ve heard it whispering.”

Valentine brought the sparrow to a stop, shifted his weight, and dismounted. Turning to Alice, he gave her his hand and helped her off the bike. “Whatever it is, we both know those rabbits don’t do things without some—roundabout—purpose. Who knows? Maybe Eris and Toland might.” Alice watched as the Bladedancer’s hand let go of her’s, opting to encase her in a sort of loose hug. 

“Everything is going to be alright,” he said, his voice light and reassuring. Alice nodded with a small smile. Leaning forward, the Exo put his mouth plate to her forehead. “Let’s go consult Tolorn, shall we?” Valentine started cackling at his own joke, his hand slapping his chest with a _thunk_.

Alice’s brow shot up as she fought a smile. “Are you serious? Is this your petty way of getting back at them? They’re not even together and I don’t think they can stand each other for that matter.”

“Well, they are quite a forlorn people. Are they not?” Valentine shrugged with feigned innocence.

Alice chuckled, “Okay, Cupid. That’s _not_ a qualifier for a real relationship.”

“Why not? Then they could be miserable together,” he cheeked.

The Titan shook her head, “I think you need your head examined.”

The two went to holding hands and trudged up the hill to meet their all-things-Hive experts. Just as they crested the slope, they found Eris’ back turned to the ghostly silhouette of a bygone man. His form billowed like nebulous clouds as he stepped closer. Though Alice and Valentine could not hear them, the situation before them seemed a little tense. Exchanging skeptical looks, the Hunter and Titan stayed quietly in place not sure of what to do.

Alice watched as Eris looked over her shoulder, focusing her attention on the unsung man. Though her expression appeared blank, Eris’ shoulders told a different story. They were rigidly set, an awkward stillness freezing her in place. The left hand at her side clenched and unclenched several times before dancing against the skirt of her garment-covered thigh. The jade glow of the former Huntress’ cloth-covered eyes quickly extinguished as they no doubt closed shut. Toland’s hands appeared to grab her shoulders as he leaned forward. To the outside perspective, it would look like a man whispering a secret to a confidant, but Alice was no fool. It was a passing moment between two old flames.

She looked away as her cheeks heated with embarrassment. Looking to Valentine, the Exo appeared as incredulous as she felt.

“Ahem!” The duo almost jumped out of their skin—chassis in Valentine’s case—as the sound of Toland’s bored voice startled them. The Lightbearers found the ghostly man with arms crossed as he drummed his fingers on the arms of his forever tattered robes. Alice bit her lower lip and proceeded forward, tugging Valentine along. “Greetings, Alice,” Toland nodded ever so slightly. “Valentine.”

“Greetings, Oh Wonderous one,” Eris spoke as she walked through Toland’s apparition. Though her behavior was curt, Eris seemed to push the fact aside as the unsung man reappeared with a frown on his lips. The ghostly Warlock walked to her side, with silence on his lips and honesty on his face. “All is well?" Eris inquired, "We have not spoken since that day.”

“Eris,” Alice greeted, “all is well...though I come bearing questions.”

“You need but ask,” Eris nodded while clasping her hands before herself. “You have journeyed far to seek me. Perhaps, you will find what it is you desire.”

“Is there any news from the Scarlet Keep?” Alice began.

“None,” Toland answered quickly. “It has remained exceptionally dull ever since and there are very few things of entertaining value on this forsaken rock. Eris is one of them.”

Alice almost laughed as she noticed the side of Eris’ mouth work into an annoyed scowl. Toland was as romantic as a vindictive Shrieker and poetic as a Cabal recording history. The Titan rolled her eyes, fighting a growing smirk all the while.

“Anywho,” Valentine cut in, “we’re still not sure what happened during the collapse. You’re the experts, do either of you have an idea?” 

Eris’ hidden trio of eyes bounced to the Exo, her lips tightening with her signature frown in thoughtfulness. “I know not of the events. Tell me,” she began, “what happened before _this_ …collapse?”

“The moment Ir Akäi died the blood crystal fell away…like a sort of encasement…and in its place was pure Light. It felt like the Tra—”

“Yes, I felt it too,” Eris answered quickly. As she quieted, her gloved hand came palm up as a fiery green orb materialized just inches above. In the middle of the sphere’s blazing form, a piece of small bone rotated in place. Eris began rubbing the edges as if out of unconscious habit. “Perhaps the dark magic Ir Akäi wove had not yet come to completion. If you indeed saw _that_ Light…then there is a chance it was redistributed back from whence it came.”

“Are theories not relative until tested?” Toland’s dry voice chipped in. “This is merely conjecture.”

“Nothing is conjecture when the Hive play a role. They test the boundaries, etching away the impurities until they extract the final shape.” Eris slowly turned away from Toland, regarding the Titan and Hunter. “Alice and her Fireteam has unveiled a secret within a hidden place. Yet another mystery we must unravel in time. Yielding to patience is our best stratagem yet.”

“Speaking of mysteries,” Valentine said bumping Alice with his elbow. “We just found the last of the rabbits. They gave us a small gift…a silvery dish. I don’t know, looks like a bowl. Not sure what it’s for, but it smells like mint.”

“I tried talking with the Rabbit,” Alice said quickly, “but unlike the others, it didn’t talk to me. It was quick to leave.”

Eris sighed and walked past the Lightbearers, kicking up dust as she descended the hill. “Come along, we have some rodents to converse with. Make haste!” Without another word, Alice and Valentine walked after Eris as Toland whisked away to her side. The group traveled down a ramp adjacent to a nearby landing pad, turning immediately right. Eris held out an arm toward an open door, letting Alice to be the first to walk through.

The Titan noticed several things as she entered the doorway, like the old electronics and the “First Light Lunar Installation” painting on a support wall.

“I found this place just before our first conversation regarding the rabbit," Eris began. "I thought I heard laughter. When I came to investigate, I found a rabbit mural on the wall in the back room." With a small sigh she added, “I did not realize there were statues just like it.”

As Alice passed by the mural, the glow of amethyst eyes caught her attention as she rounded the corner. Racing ahead with sudden excitement, the Lightbearer ran between two partially opened double doors yelling, “It’s you!” In front of her, sitting on small waist-high shelves, all ten rabbits were faced toward the door. Their eyes glittered with hunger and a round of cackling chorused between them.

“ _Alice!_ ” they said in unison, their ten voices overlapping.

“Is this where you go after I feed you?” she asked, her voice raising with excitement.

“Well…this is creepy.” Valentine commented.

Alice looked over her shoulder and found the Hunter walking in trailed by Eris and Toland’s orb. The three seemed standoffish, surveying the room with hesitant interest. Turning back around, the Titan stared at the painting on the wall, lost in the peculiar artwork.

“ _Why are you here?_ ” they questioned.

“I’ve come here,” Alice began as she extracted her shotgun from her back, “to ask you about this.”

“ _Do you not like it? Is it not worthy of being wielded by your hands?_ ” they asked together.

“No, no. That’s not it,” she defended.

“ _Then, what is it?_ ” one asked.

“ _Oh my, she doesn’t like it_ ,” another sighed with feigned defeat.

“ _Another gift perhaps?_ ” suggested a third.

“ _More rice cakes?_ ” a fourth squeaked with excitement.

“Whoa! Hold on guys,” she insisted. “I really love this shotgun, but I don’t know if I can keep on using it. Tell me, is this gem part of the blood crystal Ir Akäi created?”

The rabbits cackled in unison as their only reply, and it was as cryptic as their entire modus operandi.

Eris stepped forward and took the shotgun from Alice’s hands, surveying the weapon with clinical scrutiny. “This is…quite extravagant. I have never seen anything of its caliber.” The former Huntress hovered a hand over the gem and quickly pulled it away, fingers dancing. “This is Hive-magic. Fashioned with Light harvested from Guardians.” Handing the shotgun back to Alice, Eris backed away. “It is very powerful, use it wisely.”

Alice nodded, “That settles it then. I cannot keep it.”

The room quieted as the Titan popped the gem out of its slot.

“Since the ‘Paint Them Red’ came into my hands I have been questioned endlessly and visited by spooks. The last thing I need is this thing falling into the wrong hands.” As Alice said this, she held the shotgun out before her. “Take this. Hide it. Don’t let anyone find it.” The weapon disappeared in the blink of an eye and the Titan turned toward Eris and Toland. “Could one of you take this? We can’t destroy this. If there ever comes a day when the ‘Paint Them Red’ is needed, then we must keep it safe.”

Eris reached out and took the gem, holding it between herself and Toland. With a nod, she tucked it away in the folds of her robes.

“I think we’re done here,” Alice nodded.

“ _Alice!_ ” the Jade rabbits called in unison. Regarding the mysterious statues, the Titan gave them her undivided attention. “ _If you ever need it again, then you only need to ask…with an offering...of course_. _But don’t be late for our very important date._ ” The lunar hares cackled shortly before disappearing from their burrowed shrine. The foursome were left to their own devices and soon thereafter exited. Alice and Valentine lead the way, walking up the steep ramps leading to the landing pad.

Eris and Toland stood a small distance away from the Guardians, their countenance quiet but thoughtful. 

“What shall you do now?” Eris inquired.

Alice and Valentine exchanged looks and shrugged.

“I don’t know,” the Titan answered, “take some down time until Green Burrow’s sabbatical finishes.”

“Perhaps, find a new adventure together,” Valentine said while looking to Alice.

“Wherever that may be, don’t include me,” Toland sighed before walking down the ramp. “However, if you have any secrets to share, then you know where to find me.” As the unsung man walked away, his boots never making a sound, he coalesced into a sphere and disappeared altogether.

“Very well,” Eris nodded. “Until we meet again, I shall endeavor to keep our…secret…safe.”

Alice watched as Eris walked away, her pace hurried with purpose as she took to her post once more. A gentle tug at the Titan’s gauntlet caused the Lightbearer to look to the Exo beside her. With a nod toward his ship, he turned and hopped onto the gangplank. Alice followed suit, watching as Valentine’s cloak swayed behind him.

As they entered the cockpit, the Hunter took his seat at the wheel, and strapped in. Before the Titan repeated the same action, she leaned down and kissed Valentine on the cheek. “I don’t know what adventure comes next, but I’m glad I’ll get to face it with you.”

The Exo turned his head and looked her over with a grin on his face. “So long as I’m with you, I don’t care where we go.” And with that, Valentine leaned toward her and put his forehead to Alice’s. They stayed this way for a moment before she broke away and took her seat. “Where we headed?”

Alice thought for a moment, “You know…I heard the Dreaming City is a nice place.”

Valentine nodded, “Away we go!” 

* * *

It was only minutes after Eris watched Alice and Valentine take off, leaving Luna behind in twin jet streams, that the crunch of gravel to her left alerted her to a visitor’s presence. Looking away from the starry sky bejeweled with trillions of twinkling diamonds, Eris found a woman walking up the steep incline of the ramp. Her face was obscured in the shadow of her hood, but the glow of a single blue eye pierced through the secrecy.

“I had wondered when you would arrive,” Eris said with a slight nod.

“I was in the neighborhood and figured I would stop by. You know I love our chats,” the woman stated sarcastically. Pulling back the grey cowl, Eris caught the silken sheen of magenta hair. “Her Majesty wanted a report on the burst of Light that emanated from Luna one week ago.” As she said this, she flipped a knife into the air by its blade. A trio of green eyes watched as the woman snatched the weapon out of the air by the handle before stowing it in the sheath attached to her belt.

“As do I Petra,” Eris stated with tight lips. “I shall tell you what the Queen needs to know.” The former Huntress extracted a cool-to-the-touch gem from the folds of her robe. Placing a hand before herself, palm-up, a crimson rock began to float mere inches above her grasp. “I require a ransom for this secret.”

“Name your price,” Petra nodded in agreement.

"A secret,” Eris said placing the gem in the hand of the Queen’s Wrath, “for a secret.”


End file.
